Wordpress - Google Indexing

[sarahA]

You need to change the front page theme file to use the_excerpt() instead of the_content() (although I don't know if that's how twentyten does it as it's got loads of custom functions)

Or just use the more tag as Dom suggested. That should fix your issue I think

[charlie]

mmm you know what ... I reckon it would be a damn site easier to build a straightforward html site rather than faff around with wordpress .. doesn't seem as inyuitive as I expected it to be .. oh well .. another start from scratch

[suedenem]

I've always thought WP to be either overkill or inappropriate for around 95% of the sites using it as their backend.

However, given the time and effort invested in your site so far, is it not worth sticking with it?

[charlie]

not sure really .... I was partly curious and also it appeared that most writers used it and had been easy to set up .. not finding that .. I think I;d maybe rather just do my own so I can concentrate on the writing rather than figuring out various WP updates etc as they happen

[Dom]

I find it very easy to use myself. Given that it's primarily for blogging, the add-ons and extensions for it give it far more functionality than it was intended for, so I find it's quite suitable for a number of different sites.

To each their own, I guess.

[Jem]

mmm you know what ... I reckon it would be a damn site easier to build a straightforward html site rather than faff around with wordpress .. doesn't seem as inyuitive as I expected it to be .. oh well .. another start from scratch

Which bit are you struggling with?

TBH I think a lot of the replies here are over-complicating things (no disrespect to the individual posters, I just think they're being too geeky ). I've never blocked categories and tags before (am at the moment, doing an experiment) and have had NO problems with SEO and dupe content penalties. I don't think you need excerpts on the front page either unless you want 'em - just reduce the amount of posts shown in the settings.

[charlie]

I think it's maybe that I'm having one of those days .. a lot of time spent staring at the PC with no output !!!

Anyway ... I think I will switch back to a more conventional method, bearing in mind that the predominant reason for this site is adsense though I want it to look ok but doesn't have to be beautiful.

How's this look for an example page (links etc don't work yet) ?

http://www.chant4.com/testsites/grumples/people_yannis_ritsos.php

might tweak it more tomorrow before copying the rest of the content over.

[suedenem]

TBH I think a lot of the replies here are over-complicating things (no disrespect to the individual posters, I just think they're being too geeky ). I've never blocked categories and tags before (am at the moment, doing an experiment) and have had NO problems with SEO and dupe content penalties. I don't think you need excerpts on the front page either unless you want 'em - just reduce the amount of posts shown in the settings.

Blocking category and tag archives isn't advanced or particularly 'geeky'.  Nor is it anything to do with dupe content (though it would help avoid any confusion about the canonical page version).  It's simply controlling how you'd Googlebot to crawl your site and how you'd like your site to appear in the SERPs.

OP asked a specific question about expediting Google indexing, and we gave good, pertinent advice back.  Charlie had no problems adding the rules to robots.txt or generating an XML sitemap.  Frankly, you shouldn't be charging for web design if you can't do these very basic tasks.  It's all 'web design 101' as far as I'm concerned.

I can see template editing having a steeper learning curve.  Even then, I reckon a bit of perseverance would yield results.

[Dom]

 

[charlie]

ooops .. seem to have started a war here 

Anyway .. wordpress abandoned and good ol fashioned version up now > www.grumples.co.uk

Now just gotta look fore a niche to write about that actually might pull in ads that people will click lol

[Jem]

Blocking category and tag archives isn't advanced or particularly 'geeky'.  Nor is it anything to do with dupe content (though it would help avoid any confusion about the canonical page version).  It's simply controlling how you'd Googlebot to crawl your site and how you'd like your site to appear in the SERPs.

So err.. SEO, like I said? (Sarah mentioned duplicate content btw, hence my 'counter-mention')

Note to self: do not attempt to be light-hearted in future.

OP asked a specific question about expediting Google indexing, and we gave good, pertinent advice back.  Charlie had no problems adding the rules to robots.txt or generating an XML sitemap.  Frankly, you shouldn't be charging for web design if you can't do these very basic tasks.  It's all 'web design 101' as far as I'm concerned.

Agree - and wasn't dismissing your advice or suggesting it wasn't 'good' (t'was mostly excellent IMO). Just think it was more than was necessary at that particular point.

[familychoice]

I've always thought WP to be either overkill or inappropriate for around 95% of the sites using it as their backend.

Maybe, but I've found the main benefit for using Wordpress with smaller client sites is the potential for expansion and the ability to add new features easily in the form of free plugins. Initially they might not want Twitter integration or categorised news sections but a few months down the line once they've seen something similar on a competitors website then the requests start rolling in.