Your Guide to HeadSpace 2

This post is a follow up on SEO Specific Plugins (SEOPS) post

You downloaded it, installed it, activated it …and got stuck on HOW to configure it!

You have the right to be confused; HeadSpace has a lot to offer; and a gazillion of options that overwhelm the newbie and that is quite OK, so will go Step By Step and you can to skip any one of them you do not understand or do not feel comfortable using:

Page Settings

This one is easy, you enter:

• Page Title
• Description
• Keywords
• Tags

For any page on your blog, or cut to the chase and just fill in Global Settings, which will display those information on each and every page…Not recommended since you want each page to be as unique as possible! 

Page Modules

This is where the real work comes in, this section is the heart of HeadSpace Meta Magic…you have multiple Modules which if enabled will show on your edit Post or Page screens; for a start we will use the following:

Beginner Level

• Page Title

Title Separator is set to Blank, Uncheck Force Title Rewrite, and set Max length to 0.

• Page Description

Set Max Length to 150, most search engines will skip anything over 160 charecters, the shorter and more descriptive the better

• Keywords

Uncheck Use Tags;  you would have the choice of modifying your keywords while keeping your Tags.

 As for the Max Length; it is up to you and your blog needs.

• Tags

Your WordPress Theme might or might not have a separate spot to display Tags on Posts and Pages, so it makes sense to leave Force Tags in Posts and Pages Unchecked if your theme have them.

Show Pages: Unchecked

Disable Sugesstions: Unchecked,

And do not miss with Yahoo Tag Zone (enabled)

• Page Specific Theme

Allows you to open a page using a different theme other than your Main one;  for an example a black Background to showcase a photo Gallery and your default theme has a white Background.

• Page Specific Plugins

You have the choice of enabling any plugin you have for a specific page using this option.

• Raw footer data

 Add anything to the Footer of the page.

Expert Level:

• Meta Robots

Tells search engines to follow or not, index or not…regardless of what you have in your robots.txt file (Do you have one?)

• More text

Change the generic [ More ] to any phrase you like.

• RSS Description

Treat this one carefully;  it should be very close to your Site Description if you want to change it.

I would not change : Site Name, RSS Name, or Site Tagline; those should be set under General tab on your dashboard already.

 And then there is:

 Which are self explanatory!

Site Modules

Most of us will only need the following:

• Google Analytics: Fill in your Google ID, and Raw Code supplied by google.
• First Time Visitor
• Frame Breaker
• Page Counts

And unless you know what you are doing, do not touch System Settings or WordPress content formatting

General Options

Just leave Debug Unchecked!

I am sure that more detailed instructions will be availabe on the web, with Snapshots and fancy red arrows but this is a quick guide that I hope  will help a few lost WordPress bloggers!

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