Comment on WordPress SEO Tutorial by SEO Dave.

WordPress SEO There’s a lot going on with most WordPress sites which means they can be slowed by a variety of plugins (some are poorly made), theme features, images, embedded content, javascript etc… then there’s how good/bad the host/server you are using (is it oversold, poorly configured).

The W3C validation errors related to the Facebook Widget are because Facebook uses proprietary code for it’s javascript, there’s no way I know of to get it validating. Don’t you just hate it when big companies like Facebook and Microsoft use non standard code! Fortunately a validation error does not mean the code is broken, most errors are non damaging, the real value in tools like the W3C validator is tracking down errors that break something not removing validator errors for the sake of it.

BTW Stallion validates if you don’t use the Facebook features, but like you I like that widget, generates traffic.

I went out of my way to make Stallion use as few resources as possible for the theme features, but each feature does use resources, so more features you turn on more server resources used (this is true of any theme/plugin you use). With many Stallion features if you don’t turn them on within the various Stallion options pages they have no impact on speed. For example if you turn an ad network off the files related to that ad network are never even loaded by WordPress (it’s like they don’t exist). This is not how many WordPress themes are designed, most themes if a feature exists the code related to that feature is loaded by WordPress even if you don’t use it.

Since to use an ad network like AdSense, Chitika, Clickbank etc… requires embedding javascript that connects to the ad networks servers it’s advisable to not use all the ad networks on one site at the same time. If you run all 6 AdSense ads that’s 6 connections to AdSense to connect to their javascript, add 6 Clickbank ads that’s another 6 connections, use the Facebook widget another connection, embed YouTube videos more connections… all slowing a site down a small amount each. If something you connect to is running slow (Facebook/Twitter for example) it will slow your site down.

Run a lot of WordPress plugins, some are poorly optimised, for example I used to use a category plugin on a site with over 60,000 posts and a few hundred categories (it limited the number of categories shown), it added hundreds of extra database queries which meant it was slowing down MySQL. For a quick way to check if a plugin is generating a lot of database queries I’ve included database queries within Stallion (within the footer for those logged in, queries can be turned on/off). If you find your site generates a lot of database queries check if it’s reduced by disabling a plugin. This page as I type this shows (55 queries in 0.465 seconds) which is pretty good.

Had a quick look at your code see a lot of javascript loaded related to various plugins. Also see you use the All in One SEO Pack WordPress SEO Plugin, it adds very little to a sites SEO : see All in One SEO Pack WordPress Plugin Review. I see your tags are nofollow, that is such a bad SEO idea, you are deleting link benefit for no gain!

These so called WordPress SEO Plugins are dangerous, if they had something SEO wise I wanted in Stallion it would already be built into Stallion or I’d advise it’s use at WordPress SEO Plugins.

David