Starting a new WordPress website blog is easy but quite challenging to maintain it in the competitive web world. There are so many WordPress-powered websites on the internet but not all of them are visible to the search engines. But the question is; does your blog or website any different?
If you use the right features, plugins, and tools, you will be able to optimize your blog for search engines. Not only the plugins but the theme of your choice is also essential. There are premium themes available today that help you customize your pages. However, only an SEO-friendly WordPress theme will help you rank higher in Google.
Why WordPress is Good For SEO
Before we dive into the tips for choosing an SEO-friendly WordPress theme, it is worth highlighting why WordPress is a good SEO option.
The lack of bloated or inefficient code, which can sometimes happen with websites built by codes, or those created with a visual editor, keeps the file size down. In addition, it helps them load faster, which is something search engines look favorably on.
Another reason to use a self-hosted WordPress is its SEO advantages due to the available plugins that can help in optimizing a website. The two most popular plugin options having over 18 million downloads – the All in One SEO Pack. The highly rated WordPress SEO plugin from Yoast, another free plugin, was downloaded over 10 million times. Both of these cool plugins can be installed directly in your WordPress admin dashboard, and adding at least one of them to your site is highly recommended.
Another reason for using WordPress is its ease to setup. Many users have adopted this platform as there is ample information and advice on how to set up best and configure your website to make it as SEO-friendly as possible.
Most beginners pick a theme that just looks attractive and stunning without even being aware of the fact that SEO is a vital part of WordPress. You may know many friends who never look to the technical aspects of a WordPress theme rather than just a demo layout.
How Does SEO Theme Work For WordPress?
Once you’ve installed a theme, you can use SEO-friendly plugins for your site. Some themes are available in all-in-one SEO packages, and some themes have free SEO plugins. You can configure the plugin according to the needs of your blog or website. SEO-powered themes have a well-written code which helps in ranking high. Clean code with extra features helps you optimize your WordPress website or blog in the best possible way.
With so many SEO-enabled WordPress themes available, you must choose the best.
However, despite all the SEO goodness available to you as a WordPress user, you can still void some of these benefits by choosing a WordPress theme that is not designed with search engines in mind. To avoid making this mistake, we are sharing some tips on choosing an SEO-friendly WordPress theme.
1. Page Load Speed
Page load speed is a significant Google ranking factor because of its contribution to user experience. To put it in perspective, according to KISSmetrics, 47% of users expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less!
Design and everything else being equal, go for the fastest loading WordPress theme from an SEO perspective.
Before choosing your theme, run your demo page through performance testing tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom Tools, and GTMetrics to see if the developer has noticed performance optimization.
Just know that if any other excellent WordPress theme has some speed issues, all is not necessarily lost.
You can use plugins for compressing image files (media files are heavy and take a long time to upload) and WP Rocket for caching and file reduction.
The best compliment to a WordPress theme is a performance web host with a fast server response time and Fast Page Response times. Liquid Web and Kinsta both have excellent reputations when it comes to managed WordPress hosting.
2. Easy Navigation
Don’t be tempted to discount something as ‘basic’ as your website navigation.
Easy navigation positively affects website traffic from search engines as accessibility and ease of use contribute to SEO. A study by Gerry McGovern showed that 70% of people relied on navigation when searching for something on a site. Consequently, it is easier and faster to click on available website links.
67% of people leave a website when they are disappointed with the navigation. You can use tools like Google Analytics to find out where people are dropping off your website and determine if it has something to do with your navigation.
3. Responsive
A responsive theme is something that adapts its layout to the size and resolution of the screen. Therefore, it is easy to use on smaller screens and mobile devices, a scoring point in SEO aspects.
Responsive themes enhance the overall user experience and play a role in SEO as it sees mobile-friendly pages ranking higher on Google. Google also recommends responsive web design because it’s the most straightforward design pattern to implement and maintain.
In 2021, mobile-friendliness is essential as mobile users account for more than 80% of total internet users. Therefore, you should only choose a theme with a responsive design that fits on different screen sizes without making the layout look ugly!
4. Regular Updates
The most popular WordPress themes have frequent updates every month to improve their features and probably fix any bugs. Finding themes that provide regular updates is essential if you want to service a secure website.
Did you know that 90% of all CMS hacks in 2018 are for WordPress? According to Sucuri, 39% of hacked websites used outdated software. Not only users but also theme developers should open regular updates to improve their security.
So what these results show us is that you should choose a theme that provides regular updates and security fixes that will keep your site safe and sound!