DIYThemes has launched a new version of their premium WordPress theme, Thesis 1.7.  I’ve been using the Thesis theme for my blog for quite a while now and have to say that I’m very impressed with how capable and flexible the theme is.  Heck, I was able to completely customize the look and feel of my blog to what you see today using Thesis over the course of two days!
This new version brings a load of new features which give bloggers a HUGE advantage and increased flexibility never seen before within the blogging community. Â Whether you use WordPress as your primary website or strictly as a blog, Thesis 1.7 has everything you need to significantly impact your ability to drive traffic to your website and achieve higher search engine rankings.
NEW SEO Controls
Thesis has always been known for its SEO (search engine optimization) capabilities. However, this new version of Thesis takes the theme’s SEO features to a completely new level.
Control Search Engine Robots
In Thesis 1.7, you can now control how search engine robots see each individual page of your WordPress site. Â When creating a post in the “Edit Post” screen of your WordPress admin, you can now indicate “noindex”, “nowfollow” and “noarchive” via 3 check boxes giving you increase ability to fine tune how search engine robots see each and every page of your site.
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Thesis 1.7 also allows you to optimize your categories and tags for an even deeper, more detailed SEO experience. Â You can create page titles and descriptions for each and every category and tag. Â This opens up the door for a flood gate of search engine traffic. Â Categories and tags already provide the benefit of automatically creating additional web pages. Â Now you can optimize those additional pages making it easier for search engines to find and index them! Â This gives you potentially hundreds or even thousands of pages that can be indexed and served up by search engines in their search results.
NEW Options Manager
An updated options manager in Thesis 1.7 continues to provide you with a wealth of options. Â With the addition of the new “Page Options” and “Manage Options” admin pages you receive increased flexibility and added customization features.
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Through the “Page Options” admin page, you can optimize your category and tags meta title and description as discussed above under SEO Controls. Again, the benefits of this are great and allow you to search engine optimize each and every category and tag to bring you more search engine traffic.
Manage Options
The “Manage Options” admin page is new to Thesis 1.7. Â Through this admin page, you can save and restore Thesis options. Â This makes customizing your Thesis theme much easier, allowing you to customize your theme on a development computer for example before you upload it to your live site. Â Once you’re happy with your customization you can save and upload your new settings through the “Manage Options” page of your live site! Â This is particularly useful for Thesis skin developers. You can customize a Thesis theme and easily share your theme with friends and clients through the “Manage Options” page of your WordPress admin.
Increased Efficiency and Speed
Vast improvement has been made in the way each page of your Thesis 1.7 WordPress site is generated. Â These changes provide a noticeable improvement in the load times of each page as you navigate through your site. Â Faster page loads means visitors won’t have to wait long to read your content.
Include a Number of JavaScript Libraries
This new feature is particularly useful for web designers and developers. Â On the edit post/page when creating new content for your WordPress site, you can select a number of JavaScript libraries to include jQuery, jQuery UI, Prototype, MooTools and more that will allow you to add additional functionality and interactivity.
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NEW Home Page Options
Additional SEO control is now provided for the Home Page giving you yet another way to draw attention from search engines and encourage them to index your site. The new options also provide control over the JavaScript libraries allowing you to add them to the home page of your site for added functionality and interactivity. Â You also have control over post display giving you control over the number of blog posts you’d like displayed on the home page of your site. Â These settings give you additional control over how content is first displayed to your website visitors.
NEW Thesis Hooks
If you’re like me, you love to customize your Thesis site to make it look eye pleasing and unique. Â Much of the customizations I’ve done to my blog I did using Thesis hooks. Â With the addition of new Thesis hooks, you are given the ability to do even more customizations to your WordPress site.
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NEW Flexible Comment System
Thesis 1.7 now gives you more control over the commenting system of your site. Â Through this new capability, you can enable/disable various aspects of the comment system and even drag and drop the various sections of your comment system to rearrange the display order.
NEW Headline Filter
Thesis now comes with a headline filter that allows you to show/hide your headlines. Â This feature was part of my wish list for Thesis, and I’m very glad they delivered. Â An example of this feature in use would be to create a landing page for a particular product or service you offer on your website. Â You can now hide the headline and byline of the page and structure the page as a landing page. Â This is just one of the many ways you could use this new feature. I’m eager to see how you use it 
NEW 301 Redirects
301 Redirects are basically the art of masking an ugly URL with a pretty one. Â This is similar to adding bricks to a house, there’s no added structural benefit. Â It is purely cosmetic and looks good. Â This feature is useful for masking those ugly affiliate links that are generated for any of the affiliate programs you may be apart of. Â Once you create a 301 redirect link, you can use it anywhere on the internet. Â When a user clicks on or visits the link, they will be redirected to the affiliate link in which your 301 redirect is masking.
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Easier Localization
The use of Thesis extends beyond the borders of the United States into many other countries. Â Thesis 1.7 has a newly beefed up localization feature that makes it much easier for language translation software to translate your content into other languages. Â Reaching your target audience in international markets has never been easier.
The Verdict
As a web design expert of 16 years, I pay close attention to search engine optimization techniques whenever I create content. Â I also enjoy simple and easy customization which allows me to quickly and efficiently create even more interactive and eye pleasing graphical layouts and content. As a blogger, Thesis 1.7 is a well thought out premium WordPress theme that gives you a big advantage when it comes to SEO techniques. Bloggers want the best advantage they can get when it comes to blogging success, and Thesis 1.7 definitely delivers that advantage in style, features and functionality. Â Get a jump start on your blogging success and give yourself the edge you need to succeed online.
Download Thesis 1.7 Now!
To Your Success!
Sean Smith
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