20+ Tips For WordPress SEO
WordPress is a Content Management System (CMS) which can be used to create a website. The platform is easy-to-use and is SEO friendly. It offers its own powerful features. These are a few WordPress SEO tips which you can use for this platform:
1. You should host your website with a reliable provider. Poor uptime and security vulnerabilities can lead to the website’s quality issue. Do not choose the cheapest one. WordPress recommends three hosting providers Bluehost, Dreamhost and Siteground which you can consider.
2. When you install WordPress you will get the default ‘Twenty Twenty; theme. You may not want to use this for your website. While installing a theme choose a SEO-friendly one. Most of the themes have a responsive design and are mobile-friendly. You should run a demo of the theme in Google’s web.dev to get insights into performance and SEO issues.
3. You will need to install an SEO plugin before you optimize your site. The commonly recommended free plugins are Yoast SEO and All in one SEO Pack.
4. You should use a preferred domain like www or non-www as they are considered different domains. Your site should be available as one of these two.
5. WordPress offers an option to not allow the search engine to index your site. You should check your site’s visibility settings and you need to untick this option.
6. WordPress offers different options to set up your URLs (permalink). You should choose a SEO-friendly option. You can choose a custom URL structure in WordPress. The ‘Post Name’ is an option that lets you tell what the page is about. You should keep your URL short so that it does not get truncated in the search results.
7. A sitemap lists all your important posts and pages. Search engines use sitemaps to understand the hierarchy and the structure of your website. You can create your sitemap using Yoast SEO plugin. You should verify and submit your sitemap to Google Search Console to get more data about your website.
8. You should exclude all your low-value content like tag pages, archives, search pages from being indexed and let Google index pages that offer value to searchers.
9. Spammy blog comments can cause SEO issues. WordPress offers the users the option to set all blog comments to require manual approval. Never allow comments to go live without approval.
10. You have to write a title for every post and page in WordPress. Your title should describe what the page is about and should be click worthy so that the visitors click on them.
11. When you write a blog post or publish a post you should use your focus keyword in it. You can use Yoast SEO plugin to set the keywords you want to write about and analyze the keyword density.
12. Meta descriptions directly affect your click-through-rate. A well written meta description makes the searchers click on them. Meta descriptions should include the focus keyword and should be 150 - 170 characters long. Use Yoast SEO plugin to set your meta descriptions manually.
13. Google crawlers check the HTML Header tags like H1, H2, H3 and more to know about your website. You should use one H1 tag per post and multiple H2 and H3 tags underneath that. H1 tag is the most important header and it should include your focus keyword. Most of the WordPress themes assign the title of your page as the H1 header if coded properly.
14. ALT text is the alternative text that is applied to the images on your site. It is used by search engines to understand the image content and by screen readers for visually impaired users. You should add ALT text for all your images. In WordPress you can type the ALT text by selecting the image in the Media Library or by clicking the image within the WordPress editor. You can also add image title tags to improve the user experience.
15. You can reach a wider audience if you offer people the option to watch video content. You can include videos in content and repurpose content in video format. Optimize video visibility by using structured data to surface them in video search.
16. Internal links are links that point from one post on your website to another post on the same website. They help to establish a hierarchy of your information, help people navigate and spread authority. Build internal links to all your pages and posts. In WordPress you can use WYSIWYG to add internal links.
17. Keyword cannibalization occurs when two or more pages on your WordPress website compete for the same keyword. You should avoid this as it can lead to the search engine being unclear about which page is relevant. It could lead to unstable rankings.
18. Before you create content you should do keyword research to identify all your relevant keywords. Tools like Ahrefs, SEMRush and KWFinder can help you in keyword research. You should use keywords with good search volume but they should not be too competitive.
19. With your pages you can create different levels by using subfolders. By default your URL structure will look like
domain.com/services
domain.com/seo
domain.com/ppc
But you can group your services under one folder and use URL structure like
domain.com/services/seo
domain.com/services/ppc
You can easily do this in WordPress by using the ‘Parent’ dropdown on the page editor and using the ‘Services’ page.
20. For Google HTTPS is a ranking factor. For this you will have to install a SSL certificate on your website. This will make your website connection secure.
21. You can find out how well your pages are performing using Google Search Console. Core Web Vitals are a group of measurable performance indicators. Use the Core Web Vitals report to know how the pages are performing. You should try to improve your core web vitals for better performance.
22. You should speed up your website to improve its performance. Using tools like WP Rocket helps to boost your page speed by providing useful optimization. Minification removes unnecessary white spaces from your code and reduces file sizes. Use WP Rocket to enable this. Install ShortPixel to automatically compress images in WordPress. Reducing the size will make your site load faster.
23. Backlinks are an important ranking factor and they are used by Google to pass authority. When a high authority domain links to you it shows that there is an important site supporting the information. The websites that have more quality backlinks tend to rank higher.
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