SEOmoz has written an articles with a list of 93 Web site items that search engines may use to rank Web sites. The actual value (positive and negative) of each of these are not exactly known, it’s all part of the algorithm of the search engine, but you can see some positive things, negative things, as well as some additional items that may you have not thought about before.. Some of the most important factors: title tags, keyword use in your document text, and the primary subject matter of your top level domain (focused sites rank higher), along with the value of links to your Web site.

Just goes to back up my previous post showing that search engine optimization can quickly become a very complicated process.

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There is one thing above all with WordPress that bugs me the most. The free WordPress themes directory. I’ll admit, I have stopped bothering to look at the directory for new themes because there is one word that can mostly describe the themes found in the directory: REFUSE (as in junk, garbage, dross, etc.).

I will congratulate the theme designers that have posted themes to the directory, but I believe that some may just be posting for the link and the traffic to their own sites. Designing a junk theme, posting, and getting links rolling in forever shouldn’t be a given. I suggest that WordPress do a thorough cleaning up of themes in the directory.

The cleaning up can actually be done automatically by setting some higher standards for the free themes in the directory. Here is what I propose:

1) Remove themes if the owner’s site is no longer online.

Nothing bugs more than finding a theme and especially a plugin and then searching for some additional documentation only to find that the designer/developer’s site is no longer online and the person is non-contactable. This should be grounds for immediate removal if the site is offline for more than 2 weeks.

2) Remove themes if they receive less than X number of reviews in a period of 6 months.

Some themes will get some initial light based on the “newness” factor but since it’s junk it will eventually just take up space. Without reviews it means that people probably don’t really care about it.

3) Remove themes if they receive less than X number of DOWNLOADS in a period of 6 months.

I am extremely surprised at the number of download some of the most lame themes get in the directory. However, given the fact that it seems that there is still a lot of downloads even for the most good design-lacking themes, it makes sense that a higher standard be set. 50, 100, 200, whatever, but set a bar so that if a theme does not reach that number it will get removed.

These standards will ensure that theme designers are spitting out good, high quality stuff that people like, and that if your theme is on the borderline and on the verge of being remove, designers will rally their blog/site visitors to log on to the directory and either rate the theme, or download it (or encourage others to download it) so that the theme will remain in the directory.

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I love Smashing Magazine. I read a lot there and feel like I get my Web design fix there. I got into Web design as a hobby back in high school and it turned into work opportunities during college. Since then, I’ve moved into my career field so I’m no longer in the day-to-day mix of Web design so it’s back to a hobby sort of thing. I still, however, like to stay up on the new standards and always love to see what others are up to.

I’m kind of one of those people that could surf the Web for hours and hours if I had nothing else to do. I love to browse the CSS Galleries of Web sites, read Web design blogs, and view designers’ portfolios. I’m also a big WordPress fan and like to read tips, tricks, and walkthrough articles about WordPress blog design.

Smashing Magazine is great because it’s a center for all of those things. Whether you’re into design, coding, CSS, art, pretty much anything Web you can find A LOT there for you. Check it out sometime.

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