Wordpress is a great platform for SEO, which is why I shifted all my blogs to it from Blogger. Multiple categories as well as the ability to change the URL slugs are all fantastic to make the site more accessible for users as well as search engines.

However, one aspect of Wordpress has always bugged me. If you go to a typical wordpress post page, you will find that the important H1 tag is used up by the blog name and that the most important part of the post – the title of the post – is relegated to a meager H2. There’s no easy fix for this via the GUI and your best bet is to wade into the PHP files that make up your theme and hardcode the tags yourself – a bit complex if you don’t program, but you don’t need to know PHP to do that. If you can program in any language yourself, then you should be able to pick out the syntax easily. If you’re familiar with the ASP type spagghetti code, it’ll be a breeze.

The exact file to change will depend on your wordpress theme. What you need to do is the following:

1. Find the php file that gives your blog title the H1 tag. Could be header.php or index.php
2. Use the conditional statement is_single() to check if the page being displayed is a single post page or the home page or any other archive like page with multiple posts
3. If it’s a single post page, use H1 for the post title and the H2 tag for the blog name
4. Enter your style.css and change the styles of the H2 and H1 headings so that they look OK

If this looks complex, it’s because is. There’s no easy workaround. If you know of one, feel free to post your comments.

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