I missed Mike Payne’s WordPress SEO, A Comprehensive Pre-Launch Checklist presentation at this years WordCamp Salt Lake City, but thankfully WordPressTV has posted this and a few other videos from the day for your posterity and mine.

The video may be titled WordPress SEO, but a lot of what Mike talks about is relevant to any site or CMS. Most of it actually.

Some of the topics covered:

• SERP
• SEO vs PPC
• Keyword Research
• Keyword Placement Factors
• On Page Optimization Factors
• SEO WordPress Plugins
• Social Media, Blogging, and Making a Plan

Dec 29, 2011 Update – Installing Widget Logic version 0.51 fixes the previous is_active_sidebar issue. Thanks to Alan Trewartha for continued development on this essential plugin. Carry on.

WordPress doesn’t currently have a built in feature for controlling which pages a sidebar widget displays. The Widget Logic plugin adds this feature quite nicely if you’re comfortable using WP‘s conditional tags.

It does have built in, however, the function is_active_sidebar to test (TRUE/FALSE) if a dynamic sidebar is in use. Using this function in your themes is probably considered best-practice these days; read more about it (and sidebars in general) here: Sidebars in WordPress (Justin Tadlock, Nov 2010).

With these two items you’re mostly good to go, except for one small issue. Widget Logic has a bug(?) that returns is_active_sidebar true, even when widgets have been hidden. So even though the widgets don’t show, any markup you’ve added to the entire widget area on the page will.

Luckily there’s a workaround found on the WordPress.org forums that addresses this problem: [Plugin: Widget Logic] is_active_sidebar() doesn’t work. Vasya Pupkin modified the Widget Logic plugin to fix the issue, and posted the code here: http://pastebin.me/002f3ec3145f4e1896a9cf79e72aebb2

The fix is working great for this site, and hasn’t seemed to break anything. Be careful, however – The plugin author has concerns about the approach breaking sites, so use the modified version at your own discretion.

If you’ve ever wanted a top-level navigation item to act as a trigger for a drop down menu, but not actually link anywhere, here’s how to do it in the WordPress 3.0 menu system:

1. Insert a custom link with a label and any link address
2. Click on Edit Menu Item link (triangle)
3. Delete link address in URL field
4. Add nested sub-menu items
5. Save

The latest release of WordPress (3.1) comes with a new ‘Admin Bar’ – a small area at the top of your site that displays (for logged in users) quick links and easy access to some of the most used portions of WordPress.

If you happen to have absolutely positioned elements that take their position off of the body tag, however, these items will not shift, while everything else is shifted down 28px, the height of the admin bar.

The Fix

Luckily it’s easy enough to fix. If you’re using a modern WP theme, the body tag will contain the
<php body_class(); ?> (If you’re using Hybrid the code will be: <php hybrid_body_class(); ?>). WordPress will use this tag to add the class: .admin-bar to the body tag – only when the Admin Bar is being shown. You can then use something like the following code in your CSS to fix it:

.admin-bar .absolutepositioneditem { top: (previous absolute position + 28)px; }

Update: If you’re using the Hybrid Core Framework (as all recent sites I’ve built do), Version 1.0.1 is not adding the class .admin-bar to the body tag. Version 1.1.1 fixes this.

Update 2:After installing the latest version of Hybrid Core, there seems to be an issue with sidebar registration – I ended up losing all sidebars. The lesson learned here is to be careful when installing code that isn’t ready for public release.

Since it first came out I’ve been installing the WordPress.com Stats plugin on nearly every site I build. It’s a very popular plugin because it provides a quick overview of site traffic and related information – all from the WordPress Dashboard.

A few months back I’d heard rumors that Automattic was working on a replacement for this plugin and that it was going to ditch the Flash based stats for the more modern Flot (jQuery) charts. Needless to say I was very excited at the prospect.

The wait was finally over last week when Automattic released Jetpack, a plugin suite that contained, among other things, the new Stats application. Installing it was easy – the usual plugin install procedures, and activating it was easy too. I simply had to log in with my WordPress.com account and grant access. A few moments later I was staring at the beautiful new stats.

Most won’t get as excited about the new stats as I did, but it may not matter. Late Twitter and the WordPress forums we abuzz with people angry that their stats stopped working, and instead received this message:

Your WordPress.com account, xxxxx is not authorized to view the stats of this blog.

So it seems likely that the old stats plugin is being replaced by the Jetpack Suite. And while the move is far from being universally accepted (In general, people fear change), I for one am happier for it. Along with the new stats come a few other (somewhat useful) plugins:

• Twitter Widget – display twitter feed (replaces what you’re currently using)
• Gravatar Hovercards – Enhances Gravatars – if you use them.
• WP.me Shortlinks – if you like wp.me shortlinks.
• Sharedaddy – Social media sharing. Option to add your own.
• LaTeX Markup language for math formula types.
• After the Deadline Nice proofreading feature – spelling, style, and grammar.
• Shortcode Embeds – Easy shortcode embeds for popular video sites like YouTube and Vimeo.

Bottom Line: I’d recommend everyone install it. If only for the sweet new Stats.

Here’s a list of the site enhancements:

• Site-wide Google Translation
• Site-wide Search function
• Breadcrumb Navigation
• Improved News layout
• Improved Archives (now search articles by date, category, and tag)
• Admin Improvements

This transition marks the end of our Expression Engine era as it was the last EE site we had on our roster. WordPress is such a superior CMS in terms of administrative experience as well as in programming. This means that our clients win and we win!

Step right up, be a winnnah! Everybody’s a Winnnah!

The latter has been my form plugin of choice, for its simplicity and flexibility. That is, until I heard about Gravity Forms.

Corralling Form Data

A client on a recent project requested two special sections on his site: 1. A page a user could leave feedback; and 2. A ‘Help Desk,’ where a subscriber could submit a trouble ticket. Both sections needed to be stored in the database and easily retrieved and reviewed. None of the form plugins I’d previously used provided this functionality. Gravity Forms came highly recommended from a few people on the Theme Hybrid forums, so even though it’s a ‘premium’ plugin (yes, premium as in I paid for it) I gave it a go.

For what I needed to use it for, GF has worked like a charm. Form submissions are stored in the database and my client can easily view, delete, or mark each submission as read. He can mark certain submissions with a star if he wants. There is also an export feature, with the ability to selectively limit the data fields, as well as a date range. The file then gets downloaded as a .csv file. For collecting data over a longer period of time, this is obviously far superior to tracking down hundreds of emails with one submission each.

But Wait, There’s More!

As easily as Gravity Forms has handled my clients request, this plugin actually does a whole lot more. Here’s just a few of the features, most of which I’ve yet to even play with:

• Dynamic Field Population: Save users time by automatically filling in fields
• Form Scheduling: Define a start and end date to a form
• Limit Entries: Limit the number of entries that a form can receive
• Respond to Entries from WordPress: Manage and respond to entries right from WordPress
• Autoresponder Emails: Send automatic responses to submissions
• User Created Posts: Allow users to create a post when the form is submitted

That last one makes me smile big. I can just see the possibilities: user submitted stories, job boards, lost and found submissions, etc. For a more complete list of features, check out the full feature list, or try out their demo. Or just go buy it!

Conclusions

Plugins such as Contact Form 7 have served me well for a long time. CF7 is still a great form plugin for those who just need to get notified via email when a user wants to leave a message. For those who need a bit more, however, Gravity Forms is the way to go.

But isn’t it too pricey?

For me, no. I opted for the 5 site license for $99, and it’s been worth ever dime thus far. The potential future uses for this plugin make it even more valuable.

For those who believe that since WordPress is free to use so shall all plugins be free, this plugin is not for you. Because it costs way more than a penny. And good luck finding this kind of functionality and flexibility out of any of the other guys.

What Do You Think?

Am I right? Wrong? Have you used Gravity Forms? Is there something better out there? Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas below!