In WordPress, by default, when you click on the Read More link, the web page loads and then "jumps" to the spot where the <!--more--> tag is set in the post. Whether you like this effect or not is personal preference, but it can pose an SEO problem.

The Problem

The problem is that it creates two different links to the same page. For example, here would be the two links to Paul's last article:

http://www.search-this.com/2007/11/26/css-a-recipe-for-success/

http://www.search-this.com/2007/11/26/css-a-recipe-for-success/#more-464

So what can sometimes happen is that if the article becomes popular, half the people will link to it one way while half the people link to it the other way. Thereby dividing the total link juice in half.

The Fix

The only way I have found to fix this is to modify a file in the wp-includes directory.

For WordPress 2.2 and up modify the post-template.php page.
For WordPress 2.1 and below modify the templates-functions-post.php page.

Somewhere around line 124 comment out the $output line with the "#more-$id\" in it and change it to the below:

Just remember that each time you upgrade WordPress you will need to remod this line. But if it helps out with SEO it's a small price to pay.

If you missed any of these past SEO articles you can now catch up with this rewind:

• Stop Worrying - About SEO
• Do It Yourself SEO?
• Do It Yourself SEO? Part 2
• Title Tags - A Search Engine Optimization Cornerstone
• Random Bits Podcast with Rand Fishkin

If you look at most restaurant menus (or recipes) you will see the dish described on the left hand side followed by a dotted line that continues to the right side of the menu where the price is situated. Have a look at Figure 1 to see what I mean.

Figure 1

Although this may look like an easy thing to replicate in HTML it's really not as straight forward as it looks and there are a few obstacles to overcome if we want to reproduce this effect. So that's exactly what we are going to learn how to do in this article!

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• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Trailer - dude
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed a force wrecking ball - freakin' awesome
• Ironman Trailer - 2008 is looking good
• UI Interface Survey - take a minute and do it
• Campaign Monitor - testing your design in all the different email clients
• 35 Facts You’ve Never Heard - impress your friends with useless trivia

It's that time of the year! Yep, this week is Black Friday. Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the United States and it marks the kick off to the Christmas shopping season.

So we've put together a list of toys that any geek would be sure to enjoy. Have a look and feel free to make suggestions to things that you think would be great geek toys or what you would like for Christmas.

...It's the most wonderful time of the year...

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Episode 12 - 11/19/2007
Guest: Matt Mullenweg, Developer and Entrepreneur Photo Matt
Background: WordPress Founder
Total Time: 30 minutes

This episode with Matt is a great one whether you are a developer, blogger, or both! But before I get started, let me first apologize for the break in episodes. We had some technical difficulties and one of our interviews didn't record...twice! Yes, that's right. Neil Patel talked to me on two separate occasions, and BOTH conversations failed to record. They were great talks so I hope that one day, I have the nerve to ask Neil to do it again!!

Back to my talk with Matt. I got to talk to him after some pretty big events: Blog World Expo, the announcement of the WordPress Theme MarketPlace, and the infamous PR update. Matt also tells us about the future of WordPress! This conversation really does speak for itself; have a listen now!

Podcast Highlights

• 00:25 - Matt talks about BlogWorldExpo.
• 2:18 - We talk about the Theme MarketPlace.
• 10:09 - Could there be a plugin marketplace?
• 11:39 - Something close to Matt's heart--Open Source software.
• 13:29 - How much thought goes into the User Experience Design?
• 15:30 - If Matt couldn't use WordPress, what would he use?
• 16:30 - Will there be any default plugins in the next release?
• 19:25 - Is WordPress becoming more cache friendly?
• 20:41 - bbPress anyone?
• 23:35 - When will we see 2.4?
• 24:15 - WordPress as a CMS...
• 25:35 - Getting personal, we learn of mistakes Matt has made along the way.

Play the podcast now! Notice the Random Bits podcast player on the right?
Or Download the podcast for later!
Or Subscribe to the Random Bits podcast feed!

• RFP, R.I.P. - Why RFPs are bad for designers
• Extreme Music - cool flash site with audio files - hat tip tomas
• The Seven Rules of Unobtrusive JavaScript - great article
• Shane Seminole Mielke - amazing flash portfolio
• Introducing Google's Geocoding Service - i gotta try this sometime
• ASP.NET AJAX - some good videos to get you started on Ajax in ASP.NET