@britlandscapes said:
... i want to visually make my Wordpress blog site look as identical as possible to the SmugMug site. Mainly things like headers, footers, fonts, colours etc This is beyond me at this stage and I have asked for help on this twice on the forums without any success - is there anyone you could recommend that could help me to achieve this.
britlandscapes, I'm far from an expert but I'm learning the basics. So-called 'domain authority' is one factor in how Google determines your search ranking. It refers to the 'credibility' of a site, as determined by Google's algorithms. If a site with good credibility contains a link to your site, that's a positive factor for your ranking. But the "authority" of your own domain matters too; and if you using the Wordpress.com domain, while your backlinks to your site may help its ranking, you're not building the authority of your own custom domain.
You will find that people with good knowledge of SEO nevertheless disagree on the best ways to achieve ranking. Google doesn't make it easy to figure this out, and sometimes makes significant changes without announcing them. There is probably more than one route to success.
Epilogue: I now have a Wordpress blog with my SM gallery as a subdomain. It was a fair amount of work which, I realize, is unlikely to pay off. But if I can get even a few people reading my blog posts over time, that would be fun.
Interestingly, this exercise had the side effect of causing me to reevaluate my photography and start focusing more on what I really think is my best work.
@jimh said:
Interestingly, this exercise had the side effect of causing me to reevaluate my photography and start focusing more on what I really think is my best work.
Always a good thing. I've done that several times.
I had several problems rerouting the domain and subdomain and ended up having to learn more about DNS than I really wanted to. But the support people at SiteGround, where I host the blog, were helpful. A couple of the problems were apparently at their end.
Don't know if anyone cares, but I'm making progress after setting up a blog and writing a few posts. When I started, I had only 38 pages indexed, and that number was declining. After a few weeks of blogging, I'm back up to 225. It seems like I get a few more indexed every couple of days. No idea if this will continue, but it shows the needle can be moved.
I'm not just posting junk to attract Google bots, I'm actually trying to write interesting posts. The problem is, how to bootstrap things and pull in readers to a totally new blog. Every blogger has been there.
Comments
I will be replying to the WP blog vs SM site questions on your original thread.
https://dgrin.com/discussion/265395/trying-to-match-my-wordpress-blog-to-my-smugmug-site#latest
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
britlandscapes, I'm far from an expert but I'm learning the basics. So-called 'domain authority' is one factor in how Google determines your search ranking. It refers to the 'credibility' of a site, as determined by Google's algorithms. If a site with good credibility contains a link to your site, that's a positive factor for your ranking. But the "authority" of your own domain matters too; and if you using the Wordpress.com domain, while your backlinks to your site may help its ranking, you're not building the authority of your own custom domain.
You will find that people with good knowledge of SEO nevertheless disagree on the best ways to achieve ranking. Google doesn't make it easy to figure this out, and sometimes makes significant changes without announcing them. There is probably more than one route to success.
blog.jimhphoto.com
Epilogue: I now have a Wordpress blog with my SM gallery as a subdomain. It was a fair amount of work which, I realize, is unlikely to pay off. But if I can get even a few people reading my blog posts over time, that would be fun.
Interestingly, this exercise had the side effect of causing me to reevaluate my photography and start focusing more on what I really think is my best work.
blog.jimhphoto.com
Always a good thing. I've done that several times.
Images in the Backcountry
My SmugMug Customizations | Adding CSS to Your Site | SEO for the Photographer | Locate Your Page/Widget Number | SmugMug Help Desk
I had several problems rerouting the domain and subdomain and ended up having to learn more about DNS than I really wanted to. But the support people at SiteGround, where I host the blog, were helpful. A couple of the problems were apparently at their end.
Then, the Wordpress learning curve...
blog.jimhphoto.com
Now that I have a blog, I wrote a post about what I've learned - about SmugMug, SEO, blogs and domains.
https://jimhphoto.com/index.php/2019/11/28/smugmug-and-seo-crickets-chirping/
blog.jimhphoto.com
I wrote another blog post about the steps in putting SmugMug on a subdomain and getting re-indexed by Google.
https://jimhphoto.com/index.php/2019/12/03/smugmug-via-a-subdomain/
blog.jimhphoto.com
Thinking you could be on the right road with this
Instagram
Twitter
Another blog post: possibly, some payoff for my efforts. Or maybe not.
https://jimhphoto.com/index.php/2019/12/13/google-is-now-indexing-my-photos-well-maybe/
blog.jimhphoto.com
Don't know if anyone cares, but I'm making progress after setting up a blog and writing a few posts. When I started, I had only 38 pages indexed, and that number was declining. After a few weeks of blogging, I'm back up to 225. It seems like I get a few more indexed every couple of days. No idea if this will continue, but it shows the needle can be moved.
I'm not just posting junk to attract Google bots, I'm actually trying to write interesting posts. The problem is, how to bootstrap things and pull in readers to a totally new blog. Every blogger has been there.
blog.jimhphoto.com
Just in case anyone is still interested in this, here's my latest blog post about my (very limited) progress in getting indexed:
https://jimhphoto.com/index.php/2020/01/03/google-toys-with-me/
blog.jimhphoto.com