In this article, we will share some of the great WordPress SEO tips to drive traffic.
Many WordPress newcomers are quick to prepare their content but they seldom pay any great attention to SEO. There are over a billion websites already out there and without SEO, it will be like a needle in a haystack. The only way for WordPress users to get their web content to stand out is if they optimize it for major search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo.
Fortunately, WordPress has good out-of-the-box SEO for those users who are not professionals. The results you get by default might be decent, but since you’re competing with other websites, you have to aim for excellence. Therefore, I have prepared this article to give you just the WordPress SEO tips your website needs.
WordPress SEO Tips
- Determine Your Keywords
- Title Tags
- Meta Descriptions
- Use Analytics To Your Advantage
- Permalink Structure
- Update Your Website Frequently
Determine Your Keywords
Keywords are probably one of the most important tools for SEO there is. Keywords can be single words or phrases that represent what your blog post and niche are about.
However, when you choose your keywords, you must take quality into account. Don’t just make a keyword out of any word or phrase. For example, if your blog specializes in video games, you won’t even rank in the top 10 searches when an average user searches “video games”. In other words, don’t use generic keywords.
Try using keywords that are rather unique and something that you talk about all over your website. For example, if a user searches for ‘action-adventure video games’ and your website talks about games like that all the time, then you can rank higher for those results.
You can find out what kind of keywords your competitors use with keyword spy tools such as Ubersuggest’s Free Keyword Tool, SpyFu, and KeywordSpy.
You may also want to use keywords and anchor text when you write content about your company on other websites as it will boost your relevancy and prove that you are authentic to the browser.
Title Tags
Title tags are titles to a web page. They are also clickable links when displayed on search engine results. The title tags have to be written in a way that users can understand and click on right away. The tags must also contain your focus keyword, brand name and some meta description that provides a little information about the page.
Title tag length vary in length depending on screen display. So be sure that your keywords appear at the beginning of the title. Title tags are important tools that can increase your click-through rate or CTR as well as organic ranking. The more enticing your title, the better the CTR.
Meta Descriptions
Meta Descriptions are snippets of brief information that is right below your website or blog post’s title tag. Although they might not affect Google’s ranking, they certainly do help with click-through rates.
Even if you haven’t made a meta description for your content, Google will automatically generate one for you by choosing the most searched keyword in your content.
Ensure that your meta description gives a gist about what your website or blog have to offer to searchers and readers.
Use Analytics To Your Advantage
Analytics is very useful, especially when they give you a clear indication of how your website is performing. When you analyze big data and competitor data sets, you can gain valuable insight about your demographic, find out how your competitors are having success, and see if you can do better.
One of the best ways to know how your own site is performing is by installing and looking into Google Analytics or install a WordPress SEO plugin such as Yoast SEO.
Google Analytics will help you see who visits your website, when they visit it, how they found your website, what they do on it, and how they interact with it. Yoast as well as other WordPress SEO plugins will help you see what your content will look like from an SEO point of view. You will also learn how to improve your content to make it more optimized over time.
Permalink Structure
Ensure that your post’s permalink URL does not include any complex numbers or alphabets such as www.example.com/1w3qwq12 as it will be harder for users to find it. The URL has to be user-friendly like www.example.com/seo-guide. Only only are these URLs easy to remember, but search engines prefer them as well.
Also, ensure that you do not use dates in your permalink URL. For instance, if you use an old date like it dates 5 years back, it would make it seem as if your post is outdated. This, in turn, will lead to lower click-throughs.
To get the most appropriate permalink structure, go to Settings> Permalink and select “Post Name”. You can use this method to redirect old URLs to new ones and prevent 404 errors.
You should also add category name before post name only if your categories and post names are short. If your URL is too long, it might cut off and mislead searchers and visitors.
Update Your Website Frequently
Keep in mind that as time passes, there will be newer information regarding your content’s niche. When this happens, it is imperative that you update your content immediately to stay relevant in the eyes of your target readers as well as Google. For this, I urge you to be on the lookout for current trends regarding SEO and your market.
Conclusion
Every tip mentioned above is crucial to help you boost your website SEO ranking. Everything from keywords and title tags, to frequent content updates are important. If there are any tips that I haven’t mentioned, please let me know in the comments below.
