Well… Here we are, finally done coding for the week, I think. I generated a robots.txt file and sitemap.xml file this morning to direct indexing traffic. Yeah… You might say, “I’m telling Google and Bing exactly where to go!”
A lot of people get caught up in using plugins for everything with WordPress and it’s been my experience that Internet Marketers are the worst offenders. These are the people that think they know better than everyone else when it comes to this stuff. And yet, “The performance of their WordPress sites is generally akin to an old Ford that’s been repaired with duct tape!”
It’s one thing to use plugins, as I did this weekend, to work within the framework of limitations of a shared server environment. But it’s quite another matter to use them simply because you’re too lazy to learn code.
Well… Ok… I created those plugins. But, to my mind, it was the best solution given all the other options available. “But even still!”
Some will disagree with me on these points. But even the WordPress Team will tell you that the platform runs best out of the box, “With as few plugins as possible.”
And… After years of observation and experimentation, I can safely say that I find SEO (search engine optimization) plugins more likely to screw you than help you. They tend to use more server overhead than the hand coded stuff does, too. That’s why I’ve gone the hand-crafted route with my site’s map.
Posts will automatically be indexed if you use your site map to point the search engines to the directories, or category pages in this case, rather than use a WordPress generated or plugin generated site map showing the search engines every damn link on the site. Yes… The hand-crafted stuff takes a little extra time. But… With programs like Microsoft Excel around, “Site map creation becomes an easy trip!”
FYI: When your site map contains every page on your WordPress site, and that number reaches 37, you might notice a dip in your ranking. I personally think that’s because indexers like Google and Bing see too much site automation as a red flag. But, again, “That’s just what I personally see.”
Copilot can be helpful too, despite its flaws. I just feel sorry for all the people who think they can use an application like Copilot to create code for them without knowing anything about code other than how to paste it into a file. In these instances, “Copilot is not your friend!”
But… It is what it is and at the end of the day I can only do the best with what I have and what I know, which is forever expanding as time goes on. No one tech can know it all and the assistive software is only as good as those who create it or use it.
This week I think I’ll be turning my attention to more fun things like, perhaps creating a few guided meditations that people can use and, of course, writing here. We shall see. “It’s all good!”