Wordpress Front Page: Blog Posts vs Custom Page

[dotocom]

Dear BHW,

I have a very interesting question about SEO and Wordpress.

Do Wordpress Sites with a "blog" front page rank higher and more quickly than a WP site with a custom "home" front page?

If Yes, what's the reason, and how can we optimize a WP website used for non-blogging purposes to rank faster and higher without additional efforts (backlinking, etc)?

Are there better (in terms of SEO) CMS (joomla, drupal) for the purpose of building a normal website?

Note:
-I've created x5~6 sites with wp.org before and in my case non-blog front-pages takes longer to rank and ranks lower
-Indexing by Google took longer
-Competition for non-blogging site is roughly the same as others

Thanks in advance guys!

 

[onenumerology]

i'd like to know as well

 

[dotocom]

I forgot to add, I also Pinged my Home Page - is that okay even though it's not a blog?

If its okay, does it do any good in terms of faster indexing?

Thanks

 

[robotluv]

I've worked with several static WP homepages and have noticed no difference in the speed of indexation or ranking factors.

It's important to note that Google is going to detect your /blog page and if you're posting frequent content to it then it will increase your speed of indexation.

I think there are many other variables at play here.

 

[MASSEY]

If you make a post it can ping google and be indexed really quickly.

With a page google might find it quicky but they index it when ever they feel like it.

So in answer to yuor question if your homepage is a blog with a posts page you will get your site indexed quicker.

 

[dotocom]

Will it make any difference to Ping the Home Page?

 

[S7apster]

I agree with robotluv. I personally use both, and I really can't tell a difference in performance. I also think a static landing/home page looks a bit more professional if you know what you're doing.

@MASSEY you're site will get pinged/crawled regularly no matter where on the site the new content is being posted.

 

[thinkinghat]

I agree with robotluv. I personally use both, and I really can't tell a difference in performance. I also think a static landing/home page looks a bit more professional if you know what you're doing.

@MASSEY you're site will get pinged/crawled regularly no matter where on the site the new content is being posted.

i am also looking to create home page as a landing page on wordpress and want all my articles under /blog nav..how can i achieve that?

 

[dotocom]

i am also looking to create home page as a landing page on wordpress and want all my articles under /blog nav..how can i achieve that?

It takes 2minutes

http://codex.wordpress.org/Creating_a_Static_Front_Page

 

[S7apster]

I just use a regular php/html site as the homepage, and then it can link to a subdirectory where you have your wordpress site installed.

edit: or you can do that ^^^ but I've always been better with html so I feel like I have more control that way.

 

[niche1]

I see no difference for my sites.

The static front page does look more professional, I agree.

Also, you can link to html pages and back and forth, all that you want.

I remember years ago wondering if you could have both php and html pages together......my, my, my........how far I have come.

So really, if you want to create a squeeze page in html, upload it to your server and put a link in one of your WP pages, you can do that.....I used to front-end blogs and then link to SEC and so on......worked beautifully......and I saw no difference for my sites versus all php or html.

There was a time when the common wisdom was php pages do not get indexed easily, well now.....how times have changed, eh?

 

[johnbly341]

I've been experimenting with this myself. I'm trying the sticky plugin to keep my preferred stuff on the front page, and then setting my blog so that it only shows one post per blog page. That way my blog has new content, and the newest articles are listed on my sidebar, but my front page stays the same.

My only problem right now -- and one of you guys will probably have a simple solution for me -- is that my category archives are also just showing one post per page.

 

[blackhatdavid]

dotocom - Do you have a link from your static front page to the rest of your site (blog)? If not, then Google won't know how to crawl your site.

thinkinghat - Steps to create a static landing page as front page and blog for rest:

1.) If you don't want your standard blog formating (header, footer, sidebars, etc) on your landing page, create a file named blank-page.php and put the following code into it.

<?php
/**
* Template Name: Blank Page
*
* A custom page template with no formatting.
*
* The "Template Name:" bit above allows this to be selectable
* from a dropdown menu on the edit page screen.
*
*
*/

?>

2.) Save this file in the folder of the active theme you are using on your site.
3.) Go to the dashboard on your WP blog and create a page called "Home". From the template dropdown on the right, select Blank-Page. Enter the page as you want it to show (I will not go into that...too much for this discussion). Hint: You can "View Page Source" of ANY website page on any site that you might like, copy it, and insert the HTML into your page.
4.) Save this page.
5.) Create another page named "Blog" (leave the template as "default).
6.) Go to "Settings-General" and select static front page. For front page, select "Home". For posts page, select "Blog".
7.) You should now have a website with a static landing page for the "home" page and the standard blog posts pages as well.

*Note: Refer to first note at top to ensure that you have a link on your home page (at the bottom of the page probably) to your "blog" page. You also should make sure the pages that show on your actual blog are the way you want them to function.

 

[dotocom]

dotocom - Do you have a link from your static front page to the rest of your site (blog)? If not, then Google won't know how to crawl your site.

thinkinghat - Steps to create a static landing page as front page and blog for rest:

1.) If you don't want your standard blog formating (header, footer, sidebars, etc) on your landing page, create a file named blank-page.php and put the following code into it.

<?php
/**
* Template Name: Blank Page
*
* A custom page template with no formatting.
*
* The "Template Name:" bit above allows this to be selectable
* from a dropdown menu on the edit page screen.
*
*
*/

?>

2.) Save this file in the folder of the active theme you are using on your site.
3.) Go to the dashboard on your WP blog and create a page called "Home". From the template dropdown on the right, select Blank-Page. Enter the page as you want it to show (I will not go into that...too much for this discussion). Hint: You can "View Page Source" of ANY website page on any site that you might like, copy it, and insert the HTML into your page.
4.) Save this page.
5.) Create another page named "Blog" (leave the template as "default).
6.) Go to "Settings-General" and select static front page. For front page, select "Home". For posts page, select "Blog".
7.) You should now have a website with a static landing page for the "home" page and the standard blog posts pages as well.

*Note: Refer to first note at top to ensure that you have a link on your home page (at the bottom of the page probably) to your "blog" page. You also should make sure the pages that show on your actual blog are the way you want them to function.

Yeah, I have a "blog" that appears under my navigation on the front-page. I haven't placed any content on the "blog" however. Maybe that'll help with SEO a lot if I start writing some useful content.

 

[radicalseo2]

I actually combine static and dynamic elements on the frontpage, which is easily doable with a bit of editing of the index.php file in Wordpress. That way, I can show static content, e.g. a welcome message or site overview, and dynamic content on the same frontpage.

 

[dotocom]

I actually combine static and dynamic elements on the frontpage, which is easily doable with a bit of editing of the index.php file in Wordpress. That way, I can show static content, e.g. a welcome message or site overview, and dynamic content on the same frontpage.

Is it considered as "dynamic" if you add widgets at the side with "Recent Posts"? That way new content is displayed on the Home Page.

My question is, are widgets considered as part of the page??

 

[cioly]

Hi guys,
I'm new to the forum and I found this thread and I would like to help you with my knowledge.
From my experience, google loves updated sites so a dynamic homepage with the latest posts ..think about it and the rank will be higher because you want visitors to find the homepage mainly and google do not ranks all your other pages from your site like homepage.. another page the ranking starts from zero.
About the widgets, I THINK that widgets are not considered part of the page because when google index your page, if you do not have a meta description, it indexes the first words from your post/page.
I hope this is helpful.

I did some digging and i found this..
engtech
Posted February 14, 2007 at 6:18 am
I call them Sidebar Widgets most of the time.
I'd love to see a feature where we could embedded sidebar widgets into static pages (so your top posts widget could be a dynamic top posts page).

I don't know what to believe...

 

[radicalseo2]

Is it considered as "dynamic" if you add widgets at the side with "Recent Posts"? That way new content is displayed on the Home Page.

My question is, are widgets considered as part of the page??

Well I would say it counts as dynamic, but the links may not carry that much weight as if they were placed in the center of the page.

I never investigated the matter, but it would be interesting to know if Google considers updates in a sidebar in Wordpress as page updates. Anyone knows that?

 

[dotocom]

Hi guys,
I'm new to the forum and I found this thread and I would like to help you with my knowledge.
From my experience, google loves updated sites so a dynamic homepage with the latest posts ..think about it and the rank will be higher because you want visitors to find the homepage mainly and google do not ranks all your other pages from your site like homepage.. another page the ranking starts from zero.
About the widgets, I THINK that widgets are not considered part of the page because when google index your page, if you do not have a meta description, it indexes the first words from your post/page.
I hope this is helpful.

I did some digging and i found this..
engtech
Posted February 14, 2007 at 6:18 am
I call them Sidebar Widgets most of the time.
I?d love to see a feature where we could embedded sidebar widgets into static pages (so your top posts widget could be a dynamic top posts page).

I don't know what to believe...

I thought Google's spiders scan the whole content on the webpage. However, if the widgets.php (or whatever) is not scanned along with the frontpage.php file, it might not recognize the dynamic content.

I looked up google and found this:

http://moshublog.com/2007/09/10/static-frontpage-combined-with-dynamic-content/

Looks like you can do some coding to make dynamic content appear on the front page. I think it's extremely beneficial for SEO purposes.