A Brief Guide to WordPress SEO

July 18, 2016 3:12 pm

Your website is the most precious asset online irrespective of what it is all about. It is only through your website, you are successful in attracting visitors and demonstrating to them the products and services that you are offering to them, and arousing their interest and desire in ultimately purchasing your product or service, read all your blog posts, or get a subscription. All these tasks and actions seem to be critical for the success of any website.

WordPress SEO tips

How Do Blog Posts Influence Your WordPress SEO

If you wish to boost traffic and increase the conversion rates, you must think of effective ways of increasing the traffic generated by your website on a regular basis. Blog posts, as well as, pages, are important and really powerful content that you create for keeping your users updated regarding a new product launch, a new offer or your point of view on an interesting subject. There is a major misconception about SEO and writing. Many wrongly believe that you need to use a keyword all through your blog post for ensuring a higher ranking. This must-have worked in the 1990s but not anymore.

Today search engines, especially Google have become pretty smart and they cannot be easily tricked thanks to their algorithmic modifications. They would be penalizing all those websites that resort to these sorts of unfair tactics. However, you could still do a lot of things for achieving the first page. Here are a few tips for making your pages and blog posts really SEO-friendly.

5 Characteristics for SEO-friendly Blog Posts

An SEO-friendly blog post should be fulfilling all the criteria mentioned below:

  • Have only a single title tag along with the primary keyword
  • Have a readable and short slug with maximum of two keywords
  • Have an informative and truly compelling Meta description.
  • Have links to both external and internal pages to topic-based resources.
  • Have your readers’ requirements and desires as its prime objective, your content should be structured with headings, subheadings, paragraphs, lists, etc. You should be adopting a kind of content format that provides information effectively.

Here are a few really complicated WordPress SEO tricks and tips.

Tags or Categories

Quite often you come across people who publish both tags and categories on their WordPress site. If these two URL structures end up being indexed by Google, there could be a duplicate content problem. So it is better to use either tags or categories. However, you could use categories and tags together only if they are different and possess widely distinct content and templates.

Sitemaps Are Crucial

Most WordPress websites fail to implement all the required sitemaps for search engine optimization. Experts recommend all the sitemaps on your site.

  • XML sitemap
  • Image sitemap
  • Google news sitemap (for a news site)
  • Video sitemap

It is pretty easy to install these sitemaps. You could be opting for an assortment of plug-ins. Once the sitemaps are completed, you must submit them all straight to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

HTML Sitemap

Search engines operate by crawling content via hyperlinks on the web. An XML sitemap would be making it in a manner that a search engine would be able to locate all your pages without really crawling any internal linking on your website. However, it is a wise move to develop an internal linking structure that would be allowing a search engine to locate all your pages easily, and comprehend the relationship. You must consider creating an HTML sitemap. Remember to add a link on that on either an eye-catching page of in the footer of your site.

Yoast

There are a plethora of WordPress SEO plug-ins but most people usually prefer Yoast WordPress. There could be a lot of debates about which one is the best in terms of WordPress plug-ins. All I could say is that I love to use Yoast as this is the right one if you are searching for a go-to option.

Robust Internal Linking

Within your pages and blog posts, you must develop an efficient internal linking structure that should not only be there in your text but should be pretty well-defined also in your templates. On a particular page, you must remember to link to the most vital page that is found above that page, two pages on precisely the same level and all of the supporting pages that are just below in terms of site structure.

600 to Almost 2000 Word Posts Every Week

You must regularly publish blog posts to the maximum extent possible. However, emphasis should be on using the top quality content. The Internet is completely saturated and flooded with inbound marketing endeavors and so you must dedicate yourself completely to creating a wonderful copy.

Link Out Only to Quality Content

There is no harm in external linking but you should only opt for quality content. You should be linking with only those you wish to be associated with. This could be culminating in new links and new relationships.

Forever Top Content

You must always display premium content. Show your visitors the best content you have ever developed so far. This would be boosting and encouraging more page views. Visitors would be there on your website for a much longer time. Present recent or fresh content to keep the visitors glued to your site. You may include the latest news or information that catches their fancy.

The Final Verdict

Experts feel that the most important and effective suggestion is that if you are interested in getting better with your WordPress SEO, you should simply stop decoding how search engines work, instead, concentrate on the way you look for information online.

Conclusion

SEO has no fixed rules but simple guidelines that seems to be working for an indefinite time period. Concentrating on your visitor’s requirements is really crucial to success. You must concern yourself with what the visitors are actually looking for, the words they are using and the subject they are researching. Avoid spammy content and opt for natural wording for WordPress SEO success.

Author bio

Samantha Higgins is an SEO consultant attached to a private consultancy agency. Recently she has taken up blogging and is currently thrilled with the experience. She has an impressive track record and has been assisting several companies in gaining better rankings. She specializes in startup websites and dental SEO Services.