Experienced Users Only!
I strongly recommend that you only install my Free SEO Blog Software as new blogs; I do not recommend that you upgrade your old blogs to my SEO customized version.
It’s not that it can’t be done, we do it all the time.
The problem is that certain aspects and/or configurations of your current blog may be lost during the updgrade process.
And since this is a free piece of software we can’t possibly help you fix any problems that may occur during the upgrade process.
Only experienced users or people with access to good tech staff should use this upgrade procedure.
That having been said… thousands of you know what you are doing and asked us to put together this tutorial for you… so we did.
My guys work with wordpress every single day and they hack the hell out of it for me… so I asked them to put this tutorial together for you.
Very Important! Don’t updgrade your current wordpress blog with our Free SEO Blog Software unless you are certain that your wp blog is an older version than ours.
Our Free SEO Blog Software currently uses wp version 2.5.1. So if your current wp blog version is greater than 2.5.1… do not update it with our Freee SEO Blog Software.
If you are upgrading an existing blog built with our Free SEO Blog Software… make sure you are upgrading to a newer version of the software.
Highly recommended that you install our Free SEO Blog software on a new domain unless you are an experienced user and are certain your current wp blog is a version older than 2.5.1.
Here’s how to upgrade your blog to the newest version of our Free SEO Blog Software.
This illustrated tutorial will show you how to upgrade your existing blog to Jeff Johnson’s Highly Optimized SEO WordPress Blog (Free SEO Blog Software).
You can only upgrade your blog if your current version of WordPress needs to be upgraded. If you have the most recent version of WordPress, this installation tutorial will not apply to you.
Note: This upgrade process will deactivate any plugins that you may have installed in your current blog. Reactivate them at your own risk; they may or may not work properly once this updgrade process is complete and we can’t provide support for any problems that may occur.
Also, any configurations that you have made to your current blog will be overwritten by our SEO customizations in the upgrade process… that means your current blog configurations will be lost.
We strongly recommed that you backup your current blog before proceeding with this upgrade. If you do proceed with the upgrade, please proceed at your own risk.
We recommend you use our optimized blog package for new installations only.
Here’s how you install a new Free SEO Blog:
Installing a new SEO wordpress blog
If you still wish to continue with the upgrade… here what you do:
1. Backup Your Current Blog Database
Before you upgrade your blog it is strongly recommened that you backup your database, just in case anything goes wrong. You will have a backup of all your posts, pages, comments, links, and configurations of your blog. To backup your blog you will need the WP-DBManager plugin installed. If you already backed up your blog’s database skip to step 2.
Here are some Free cpanel hosting tutorial videos that may help with database creation and administration.
- Go here to download the WP-DBManager plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-dbmanager/
a. Extract and upload the dbmanager folder to wp-content/plugins/.
b. Activate the new plugin by logging into your blog, then click on [Plugins] in your Dashboard. (Depending on the version of your blog, the link will have a different look and location in your Dashboard. See illustration below.)
c. Locate the WP-DBManager plugin in the list of plugins and click [Activate] on the right.
d. Now that you’ve activated your new plugin, let’s use the plugin to backup your database. Click on [Database] on your WordPress Dashboard menu.
e. Next, click on [Backup DB].
f. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on [Backup].
g. At this point you should have created a backup of your database. Now we will save the database to your local computer. Start by clicking [Manage Backup DB].
h. Select the most recent database backup (probably the only backup, if this is your first time using this plugin) and click on [Download].
i. Save the file somewhere on your computer in a safe place. The file you download will have the extension of .sql. You have successfully saved a backup file of your blog’s database.
2. Download the SEO Optimized WordPress Package.
a. To get a Free copy of the SEO Optimized WordPress package go to Free SEO Blog Software and request the download link.
b. Read the instructions in the 2nd email on where to download the package. (If you have downloaded this package previously, you may need to re-download the updated package, the package should be named: undergroundtraninglab-seo-wordpress-0.9b.zip)
c. After you have downloaded the package and extract it to your desktop. (If you do not have any extraction software, download and install WinRar here)
3. Uploading the Blog Package
a. Open your FTP client and upload the entire contents of the wordpress folder overwriting all the files of your current blog, EXCEPT for the wp-config.php file! (If you do not have a FTP client download and install Filezilla here)
| IMPORTANT! DO NOT UPLOAD AND OVERWRITE THE wp-config.php FILE!! |
4. Upgrade blog
a. After you’ve completed uploading the blog package navigate your web browser to: [YOUR DOMAIN NAME]/wp-admin/upgrade.php
b. Read the upgrade warnings before continuing. Please be aware that any and all configurations that you may have set in your blog will be overwritten by our customizations. Click on [Upgrade and Optimize My WordPress Blog].
c. Click [Continue]. You may have to click Continue more than once, until it takes you to your blog’s front page.
d. Next login to your blog’s dashboard located at [YOUR DOMAIN NAME]/wp-admin
e. Click on [Settings] in the top right corner of your WordPress dashboard.
f. Click on [XML-Sitemap].
g. Scroll down to the bottom of the configurations and click on [Apply Jeff Johnson’s Configurations].
Congratulations, at this point you have successfully upgraded your blog to Jeff Johnson’s Free SEO Blog Software!
Hi,
does your supercharged blog software include something along the lines of tagging and proper urls like the standard wordpress does not?
There are so many plugins for the ordinary word press platform and many people dont realise its not great from an SEO standpoint.
I think many people dont know how to get around this or which plugins would suit, so your souped up version free of charge is great!
Some recommend what to install to get around this so wordpress gives a proper url rather than any weird /= 14 destinations that do nothing in the search engines.
Does your version get around this such as incorporating tagging etc?
Chris
Jeff Johnson says: Glad you like it and… the anwer to all of your questions is yes, bookmark tagging and permallinks pre-configuration is included standard with my free seo blog software.
Jeff and his WP Team,
Thanx for sharing the tips for upgrading the WP .
The reason for my thanx is that i was thinking of shifting my wp blog to another host and i was at a loss of how to go about taking the backup of the database.
Thanx for letting us know about the plugin available for the same.
You are rocking with this free training.
Looking forward to more such post.
Maybe you should write a comprehensive tutorials to dominate the search engine like how howie schwartz and others are doing using web 2.0 sites…. Please !
Thanx
Anish
Jeff Johnson says: Thanks for the feedback!
We do a ton with web 2.0 and have a ton of tutorials created already… we use them to train our own staff.
I’m not sure they’ll all find their way to this blog… but some will
Have you checked out this post:
Social Bookmarking Tutorial
Jeff,
Thanks. I could upload the wordpress folder successfully with your easy steps guide. The only problem I am facing is in the last step. I don’t see the “Apply Jeff Johnsons Configuration”button . I can see only the “Update” and “Reset” options. Does this mean that, Jeff Johnsons configuarations are already applied and I do not have to do anything now?
Thanks,
jayant
Jeff Johnson says:
Here’s what my blog guy has to say:
This feature is new to the ‘b’ version of the package.
Version ‘a’ does not have this upgrade feature. Tell him to make sure he is using ‘b’ version, not ‘a’. If he is upgrading his package from ‘a’ to ‘b’, he must overwrite all of the files and folders with version ‘b’. (Except for the wp-config.php file, of course)
He can distinguish the difference by looking at the name of the zip folder (notice the letter version at the end of the name of the file):
Version A:
undergroundtraininglab-seo-wordpress-0.9a.zip
Version B:
undergroundtraininglab-seo-wordpress-0.9b.zip
Hopefully this helps!
~Anthony
Thanks!
Hey Jeff, i have installed your blog software but i can´t see the “apply Jeff Johnson´s configurations” button on the XML-Sitemap settings page. I don´t understand why.
Best Regards.
Jeff Johnson says:
Here’s what my blog guy (anthony) has to say:
This feature is new to the ‘b’ version of the package.
Version ‘a’ does not have this upgrade feature. Tell him to make sure he is using ‘b’ version, not ‘a’. If he is upgrading his package from ‘a’ to ‘b’, he must overwrite all of the files and folders with version ‘b’. (Except for the wp-config.php file, of course)
He can distinguish the difference by looking at the name of the zip folder (notice the letter version at the end of the name of the file):
Version A:
undergroundtraininglab-seo-wordpress-0.9a.zip
Version B:
undergroundtraininglab-seo-wordpress-0.9b.zip
Hopefully this helps!
~Anthony
Looks good…
I dont mind giving someone a link back but I have 11 outbound links already after install
looks like a starter kit for a link farm
Jeff Johnson says: Amen! I sent out an apology email and made a post about this the other day.
Here is my apology post:
Remove my links
Basically, my non-marketing tech guys used some themes that have a boatload of links; not just my links but links the theme designer (not us) stuffed in the footer.
I asked them to update the package with themes that don’t have so many links.
They also accidently doubled up my links… so I had those removed, too.
You are only the second person out of thousands to mention it but I’m sure glad you did
the first guy brought it to my attention and we corrected it fast.
Feel free to remove my links, or join my affiliate program and promote it with the links on your site
Once again:
Here is my apology post:
Remove my links
Hi Jeff: I am new at this so I have a couple of questions. I have done the slq data base and am ready to upload the blog, but am not sure where to uplaod. Does it go to the slq db or should it go to the public htm for the website?
Also I have an account at wordpress but never started a blog, could I just uplaod it there?
Thanks,
Erma
Jeff Johnson says: Sorry, but this needs to be installed on your own hosting account, not at the wordpress hosted site.
You should upload the files to the public folder (www)
Here are the wordpress tutorials my guys put together for you:
SEO wordpress installation video tutorial
Change SEO wordpress theme video tutorial
Jeff:
I have received a number of emails from you and it seems that all the U-Tube videos are no longer available? Do you have another source for the videos?
Keep up the good work,
Rick
Jeff Johnson says: All youtube videos are still available… the ones on the blog were down for a few minutes while I edited the posts, but should be working fine.
IF not you’ll find 35 or so of them here:
Jeff Johnson Videos
How do you use yahoo pipes I type in the keyword and get feed but not sure how to find the feed.
Jeff Johnson says: not sure I understand the question.
What is a micri-mini network???
Jeff Johnson says: using social profile pages at squidoo, hubpages, etc. and 4 or 5 page static sites sites.
As I said in the post.. please keep checking back for updates… I’ll post them when I can:
http://www.undergroundtraininglab.com/48/traffic-getting-jumpstart/
Was wondering what poster you are using with wordpress topost your rss feeds.
Thanks
Stee
Jeff Johnson says: My own http://www.affiliatetrafficmachine.com/
Hey Jeff,
I’m reading this post and I notice there are two versions of this software.
Version “a” and version “b”
I got version “a” when I signed up.
How do I get version b ?
Thanks.
Manny
Anthony says:
We’ve recently added a comprehensive FAQ’s section and a resolution to your problem can be found here: http://www.undergroundtraininglab.com/faqs/
Thanks for the all in one setup Jeff, I just upgraded an existing blog with no problems at all. Works as well for upgrading as the usual WP updates always do.
Just need to tinker with the themes and get the right one and I’m good to go.
Thanks Jeff.
Great work Jeff. Can you forward me the free software, I never received it. Thanks.
Anthony says:
We’ve recently added a comprehensive FAQ’s section and a resolution to your problem can be found here: http://www.undergroundtraininglab.com/faqs/
I just installed the SEO package. There’s a new version of WordPress out, and I’ve been upgrading my other blogs. Will upgrading to WP 2.6 affect any of the special customization that is included in the SEO blog package? In other words, would I lose all the “good stuff” you just gave me?
Please check out the wordpress tutorials as well as our FAQ.
WordPress tutorials
G’day from Australia
I just upgrader to your wordpress version but was disapointed to find it is version 2.5.1
I have been using 2.6.3 for a while now – so what happens if we want to upgrade? Will we lose all the SEO package stuff going on behind the scenes?
Also are we restricted to the provided Themes?
Dave
Jeff Johnson says: We upgrade the package regularly.
We have to make sure all the components work with any wordpress update.
But you can update it anytime you wish using our tutorials.
And you can use any theme you’d like. Our tutorials show you how.
wordpress tutrorials
Hey Jeff
Any chance you could get your coders to put together a version of the free SEO blog package using WP 2.6.3 just so we’re up to date with security issues?
I can’t use any of the tutorials listed so far as I’ll be updating newer versions of WP with your older one.
Or even better, how about a PDF for us techie-types that can tell us how to modify our own WP installations according to your specs?
That way you don’t have to keep answering questions from demanding people like me!
Thanks anyway for making it available for free.
Jeff says: Acutally, you can upgrade to any versoin you’d like but we can’t guarantee compatibility so make sure you backup your data first.
We will try to update the free seo blog software version after things settle down for us.
The tutorials on updgrading are in the tutorials section of this blog.
We have thousands of pages of pdf instructions in our private coaching club. But those are for our “professional seo blog” version of the software so they wouldn’t be apply to this free version; the professional version is updated to the newest versions of wp.
Here are some tutorials that will help:
Free SEO Blog Tutorials
Here are the FAQ for Free SEO Blog Software:
FAQ – Free SEO Blog
Internal page links bringing up 404 errors – page not found. Entered 2 more categories, published them but not showing on home page.
Haven’t added lots of content yet, just getting my bearings, but is the above not strange or have I missed something out completely, like modifying templates etc???
Changed the theme over 2 or 3 times, but still the same 404 errors.
Hope you can advise.
Respectfully yours,
Hans
Jeff Johnson says: Theme updating tutorials are covered in the links below.
But my advice is check with your hosting proivder and have them look at your account… maybe they’ll spot your mistake and save you some time and headaches of chasing it down.
Here are some tutorials that will help:
Free SEO Blog Tutorials
Here are the FAQ for Free SEO Blog Software:
FAQ – Free SEO Blog
Hi Jeff,
Can any theme be installed after the wordpress plateform or are the themes designed to go with your seo blog software??
Thanks in advance,
Karen
Just about any theme may be use.
Here are some tutorials that will help:
Free SEO Blog Tutorials
Here are the FAQ for Free SEO Blog Software:
FAQ – Free SEO Blog
Ive upgraded my blog and i get this error from firfox.
Redirect Loop
Redirection limit for this URL exceeded. Unable to load the requested page. This may be caused by cookies that are blocked.
The browser has stopped trying to retrieve the requested item. The site is redirecting the request in a way that will never complete.
* Have you disabled or blocked cookies required by this site?
* NOTE: If accepting the site’s cookies does not resolve the problem, it is probably a server configuration issue and not your computer.
Anthony Montalbano says: If the current version of WordPress is greater than 2.5.1 and you are trying to upgrade it with our SEO software package it may cause some errors since you are actually “downgrading” your version of WordPress. The SEO software package is only designed to upgrade for versions older than 2.5.1. We actually recommend using the software package to only build new websites. If this is older than a 2.5.1 WordPress installation, try to re-upload the package and try the upgrade again.
Jeff,
The link to remove your links goes to a missing page.
Since I have an SEO company I kind of need to get rid of them.
I think I will find a way to use them to promote your affiliate program on a different site though since they are there.
I don’t know what you did with this “power pack” but my blog got indexed in just a few hours. Well that is the earliest I checked any way.
Thanks for the software and I hope I make enough money to take advantage of some of your training some day too.
Lane
Thanks,
Lane
Jeff Johnson says: All you have to do is edit the theme code or the widget the link is in.
Some of my coaching clients have gone on to work for the “big three” search engines so you never know how far you can go. Good luck!
Jeff,
I couldn’t resist this comment. How long do you think it took me to do what you say above (edit the theme) considering it took me 15 minutes to find the theme editor? (That might tell you I’ve never edited a theme before.)
Hey, I finally managed to remove every refrence to you from my blog. (sorry but had to) Having to figure it out on my own was good for me as now I at least have a little bit of abilty to edit a theme.
The thing I really need to learn to do is put an opt in box (to make a landing page) in the top right hand corner of the theme.
Care to save me some time and comment on how to do it?
Anyway, sincerely, thank you very much again for the optimized blog software as I really needed a way to optimize my wordpress blogs! I had alredy spent a lot of time searching for a good way to do it.
Too bad it’s too difficult to do on the ones already installed.
Lane
Anthony Montalbano says: There are a couple of ways to setup an opt-in, but we recommend you use a service called aWeber. With aWeber you can create opt-in forms and it will give you a piece of HTML code to add to your site. To add it to your blog on the sidebar, you can create a Widget inside of your wp-admin. Create a ‘text’ widget and paste that HTML code from aWeber there and save it. This will then show your optin form on the sidebar of your blog. Hope this helps!
Hallo,
thanks for your help.
I habe the version ‘a’ of the software, where Can I find the version ‘b’? Is it better?
Thank you
Guido
Anthony Montalbano says: The most recent version is version 1.2a. There are two previous versions, 0.9a and 0.9b. Both 0.9 versions are older versions. If you have 1.2a you have the latest release of the software.
Hi Jeff.
I installed your blog package. It’s really good! Thank you.
Just wanted to ask. WordPress is keep asking me to upgrade, so are the plugins. Should I?
I’m afraid i’ll lost all customizations that way.
Anthony Montalbano says: Yes, you can upgrade your blog and plugins, after you’ve installed our blog package. Since all the customizations are setup during the installation, an upgrade to WordPress and plugins does not effect the initial customizations.
Anthony,
Thanks for helping!
I have Aweber and I aready tried exactly what you say here. The problem is it doesn’t put the opt in box where I want it (top right hand corner of page) on the blog and it doesn’t center the the call to action. (Fill In For Free SEO Evaluation) It just distorts the box so it ends up looking ugly and unprofessional! I know a reasonable amount about SEO but NOTHING about design!
I appreciate all that you Jeff and the rest of his staff have already in done in making this software available. I know this isn’t a support blog for wordpress but I thought I’d mention it in case ot was a real simple thing for you guys to explain. There is no need to though and I understand completely if you can’t.
Thanks,
Lane
Anthony Montalbano says: Yes, design can be very tedious at times. My simple suggestion to what you’re trying to achieve would be to use a theme that has a right sidebar widget. Then add it as the top item on the sidebar. Without getting to technical, aWeber gives you 2 options for getting your web form’s code, select “Raw HTML version”, you should notice a couple things in the code called “input”, by default they have a size of 20. Change this number to a smaller size in the code when you paste it into a widget of your blog. If are still having trouble with design, try to find a theme with larger sidebars to accomodate the aWeber forms.
nice….! thank
Anthony,
Thanks for the being generous with your time and helping me with this. I really appreciate it as I have spent hours struggling with this.
I will try it tomorrow.
Lane
Thank you for the SW. Really appreciate it!!!
I’m a newbie going thru your tutorial video (Free SEO Blog installation) & I understand it all (I believe) except one part. When it says, while installing SEO to a fresh site, to open the wp-config.php file & enter ‘my SQL database info.’. . .I’m sorry, I’m lost here. Where’s the database name, username & password come from? I’m baffled at this step. Hopefully you can help. Thank you if you can.
John
Jeff Johnson says: You have to create them in your hosting account. They can help, or you can view the videos below.
Here are some tutorials that may help solve your technical issues:
Free SEO Blog Tutorials
Here are the FAQ for Free SEO Blog Software:
FAQ – Free SEO Blog
Here are the web hosting companies we use and recommend:
Web Hosting
Hi Jeff,
The SEO WordPress is terrific. Thanks to you and your guys.
How do we upgrade to WP 2.7? Is that possible?
Thanks again,
Hal
Jeff Johnson: Don’t upgrade to a higher package, only install on blogs with lower numbers.
They’ve been working hard on 2.7 but there have been “issues” .
We’ll wait until it is stable and the plug ins are certified to work with it.
Jeff- FYI, the plugin you mention only works with 2.7 wordpress or higher!!!
Just visited the site to check it out. Not sure what it does if it is installed on a lower version of word press.
If you guys come up with another option, that would be great. I am using 2.6.1 still.
Hi,
I just uploaded the free seo blog software and i like it very much.
Thank you Jeff!
Can’t find my .htaccess file to change attributes. I don’t see the file listed. Any help.
Try contacting your hosting provier or…
Here are some tutorials that may help:
Free SEO Blog Tutorials
Here are the FAQ for Free SEO Blog Software:
FAQ – Free SEO Blog
Here are the web hosting companies we use and recommend:
Best Web Hosting Deals
Great Site! Thanks for the Information. Just what I was looking for. Will definately bookmark.
thanks for your sharing
Great plugin! Been looking for something like this for ages.
Love the plugin. Is there a way to include the thumbnail photo with the excerpts?
Jeff Johnson: Just add media via your wp image library and choose thumbnail when writing your post.
Yeah,that is right!
Great article~Exactly what i was looking for~
I have installed underground traffic geeting plug in
When I go to the Traffic getting optimization on WordPress there is a warning asking for the latest WordPress version 2.7 or higher.
I´m using WordPress 3.0 but can not open the optimization process
Make sure you have TGSP 2.1 or better yet… the beta version 2.1.1… that solves this issue for the few that have it.