WordPress is the industry leader when it comes to content management systems. In fact, according to the latest investigation, 29% of all websites are built using WordPress (the next closest competitor, Joomla, is only 3%).
It is not only, perhaps, the most convenient platform but also unique in the field of SEO. Even right out of the box, we cover all SEO basics.
However, with some other strategies, you can take your WordPress SEO to the next level. Below are 10 ways to ensure that your WordPress site and content are fully optimized.
1. Set your permalink structure to static
By default, the Permalink (or URL) structure in WordPress is neither SEO-friendly nor user-friendly. Out of the box, it would look something like this: http://example.com/?p=N.
Fortunately, it is easy to change the default to be more search engine friendly, such as http://example.com/your-post-title.
In your WordPress dashboard, go to Settings -> Permalink Settings and choose the post title. This will keep your URL structure simple and clean and ensure that all the URLs in your new post are automatically optimized.
For some additional SEO capabilities, you can also customize the URL of your posts by changing your slug. Just scroll down to the Write Down page and add your target keyword to the “Slug” field. This will replace your default URL with your chosen keyword.
2. Use keywords in the two most important places: title tag and title tag.
You should use your keywords (and keyword variations) in your content. Just remember: A well-optimized piece of content will not use a keyword repeatedly. Instead, it will include a variety of words and phrases related to your post’s main topic.
However, you will have the primary keyword phrase to focus on. Perhaps the most important place to use this phrase is in the title tag (which, by default, should also be the keyword in your URL). It is advisable to use these keywords as close to the beginning of the title as possible.
Title tags (H2, H3, etc.) make sure Google and your readers know your content. WordPress makes it easy to use the title tag by simply clicking on the dropdown text formatting field in the visual editor (note: if you don’t see this field, click the toggle toolbar button will appear).
By default, your page or post title will be your H1 (most important) tag. You must have only one H1 tag per page or post.
For the main sub-lists of my posts, I usually use the H2 tag. For example, in this post, the main title is wrapped in the H2 tag, and I have used H3 for the numbered elements. Any sub-process under numbered elements will be wrapped in an H4 tag.
3. Upload the Sitemap in XML format.
XML Sitemaps are not strictly required for Google to navigate and index all your pages and posts. However, they can make the process more efficient by ensuring that your new content is available as quickly as possible.
Luckily, there are some great plugins out there that will automatically generate an XML sitemap for your WordPress site. Some of the best is Google XML Sitemaps and XML Sitemaps. They will notify Google every time new content is added, so your sitemap will always be up to date.
A little warning about your sitemap: Make sure you don’t tell Google one thing in your sitemap and one more in your robots.txt file! For example, if you have blocked a specific page in your robots.txt file, make sure you do not include it in your sitemap. For tips on how to avoid this, see this excellent mosaic post.
4. Make sure you have configured Google Search Console.
If you have not already customized your Search Console site (formerly called Google Webmaster Tools), you cannot miss essential SEO alerts or notifications.
If Google has any problems accessing, crawling, or indexing your content, you will be notified. Here you will see any manual measures (punishments) applicable to your site.
In the search console, you will be able to see some links to your site and some keywords that bring traffic to your site.
5. Pay attention to the correct length of content for your keyword.
There has been considerable research over the years on the ideal length of material. This research suggests that high-ranked content typically ranges from 2,000 words.
Of course, the problem is that there are many examples of content that are too few and still top the list.
So instead of focusing on the exact length of your content, focus on writing excellent content that answers the questions your reader asks. Moses Rand Fishkin offers three great tips for evaluating the optimal length for your content:
Find out what works for your chosen keywords. Check the top-rated content and see how long it lasts.
Ask yourself: Can I improve this topic further? If you can do it in fewer words, go for it! If you think a longer post will work better, then you should move in that direction.
Match your content to the goals of your readers. If they have a quick question they need to answer, you should probably answer it quickly in a 500-word message. If their questions are more complex, it may be optimal to write more than 3000 words for that particular topic.
6. Decide whether to use www.
This is a quick and easy tip that can have a significant impact on your SEO.
Google encourages all website owners to choose their primary domain, which is https://www.yoursite.com or https://yoursite.com. It honestly doesn’t matter (from an SEO standpoint) what you choose.
Set your preferred domain in Google Search Console (see above) as well as WordPress settings.
In your WordPress dashboard, you can go to Settings -> General and by setting your WordPress address (URL) and site address (URL) to a preferred domain.
You must also enter your primary domain in Google Search Console. To do this, enter your console, click on the gear icon, then go to search settings. Choose your preferred domain, and you’re done.
7. Switch your site to HTTPS.
If your site allows your visitors to enter text or other information via contact forms, consent fields, or payment fields, you need to ensure that you are using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer).
This ensures that any sensitive personal information left by visitors to your site is encrypted and therefore protected.
But it is not only essential to protect the privacy of visitors but is also an official SEO ranking factor. If you haven’t switched to HTTPS, Google can now show “unsafe” warnings to visitors when they are on pages on text fields.
If you are not sure if you switched to HTTPS, check with your web host. They usually provide an easy way to switch and would be happy to help.
8. Optimize your WordPress site for faster speeds.
The site speed is a ranking factor, but it is essential for user experience as you can see in the graph below, the bounce rate increases as the page load time increases.
The best way to determine how fast your site is loading is to use the Google PageSpeed Insights tool. This will analyze your WordPress site and give you an overall speed score of 100.
It would also recommend enabling specific caching such as browser caching, image optimization, and compression to help improve your site’s speed.
We highly recommend using a plugin (or two or three) to address various aspects of your site’s speed. I usually recommend WP Super Cache, Smush Image Compression and Optimize, and WP-Optimize.
9. In 2021, you still need to create a link.
This post focuses on internal ranking factors (i.e., what you can do on your WordPress site to improve your ranking). However, getting inbound links to your site is still an important SEO strategy in 2021.
SEMrush recently discovered that links to keyword-targeted sites are even more critical with fewer than 10,000 searches per month (which, let’s face it, most of us).
And don’t forget about the internal linking! Links to relevant content on your site help distribute link power to your site and improve user signals such as bounce rate, page views, and time. While user engagement may not be a direct ranking factor, your website and business’s indirect benefits are immense.
If you are looking for some effective link building strategies, check out my posts on “6 Link Building Techniques You Might Not Know About” and 7 Deadly Small Business Link Building Strategies.
10. Install the Yoast plugin.
If you do only one thing on this list, then it should be one. Many of the above strategies can be covered at once with the Yoast SEO plugin.
Yoast SEO has been around for 10 years, but its creators are continually updating it to accommodate new SEO rules and algorithms.
Some of the main benefits of using Yoast for SEO are:
- Full Content Customization. Yoast will ask you to choose a primary keyword for your content, then make sure you use it strategically. It will also help you optimize your meta description so that your content is more likely to appear in search results.
- Automatic XML Sitemap. Just click on a button, and Yoast will create and submit a sitemap of all your posts, pages, and even images.
- Automatic linking of links to RSS feeds. Are you tired of scrapers stealing your content? Yoast automatically adds a link to your feed so that Google will always know who created your content.