WordPress is one of the largest platforms for creating and managing a website. It offers free services for individuals and organizations which allow them to create a blog or a website. These services can be upgraded for an affordable fee by users at any time.
Another great reason for the popularity of WordPress is its massive range of SEO friendly tools and plugins. Before we get to the WordPress SEO tips, let’s try to understand first why you need a good SEO strategy.
Importance of SEO
Among numerous ways of browsing the internet, the most common options people use to search for new information is through a search engine. Be it Google, Yahoo or Bing, all modern search engines use some algorithm to arrange their search results.
However, these results are often in millions and most users usually find a useful page link on the first page of search results.
There are various methods that enable website owners to place their websites at the top of search results and increase traffic. While these techniques are not proven to work instantly, they work well in increasing the visitors and ad revenue.
In today’s time, creating a website has become an excellent potential source of income for anyone. Using SEO can turn that potential into a reality.
Effective WordPress SEO techniques
WordPress has a wide range of features and tools which allow users to perform various SEO functions on their websites with ease. A few tried and tested techniques which have yielded positive results are listed below:
1Friendly URL structures
Some URL structures contain the Post Name while others can include day and name, month and name, numbers or customized structures. The structures which only contain the Post Name are easy to be read by humans as well as search engines.
These can be accessed through the Permalink Settings of WordPress and may subsequently increase the chances of a page ranking higher in search engine results.
2Plugins
Since WordPress is a humongous platform with support from a vast community of developers, there is a WordPress plugin available for almost anything. Users can choose to employ numerous plugins at once.
There are also some plugins which can perform many essential SEO functions. This includes “Yoast SEO” or “All in One SEO Pack” which are also free.
3XML Sitemaps
This file lists all the pages on the website, making it easier for search engines to find the site’s entire content.
Although this technique does not boost the site rankings instantly, it makes finding information easier. This helps in quickly getting the initial rankings and also helps search engines to update rankings shortly after a content update.
Various SEO plugins available on WordPress can help in generating the sitemap quickly.
4SEO research
Generally, when a person has to search for something on the internet, they enter phrases into the search engine.
For example, a person looking to buy a house in California will enter “real estate in California” and search for further information in the resulting links. Those phrases are known as keywords and search engines look for them in websites before arranging the search results.
WordPress plugins allow users to search for the trending keywords to include in their latest articles and posts which may lead to an increase in their ranking.
Search engines also look at the links embedded on a page, also known as backlinks. While having references and links to useful websites with relevant and high-quality content can improve a website’s ranking, using bad links may lead to the site being banned from search engines permanently.
5Analytics
WordPress contains a wide range of features that can check the performance of different pages and visitor patterns.
These data can help in monitoring statistics, like the most popular pages and posts on the website. They can also be useful in planning future posts which could potentially generate more revenues.
6Other features:
Various editing features can also help in improving search rankings and getting more audience.
WordPress has inbuilt features for tagging the content and dividing it into categories which makes sorting out pages on a website easier and more efficient for visitors as well as search engines. It also has other features to smoothly insert external and internal links, optimize images, etc.
A site may also rank lower if it’s unsecured or performs slowly. People don’t want to visit websites, which have previously received a bad rating or those that are simply time-consuming.
WordPress has numerous advanced features for increasing site performance and updating security which helps users to easily secure and upgrade their website.
WordPress has several more features and functions and regularly adds new ones with every update made by them. People can learn more about SEO using WordPress through official guidebooks and tutorials along with referring unofficial sources as required. Online marketers and website owners can also choose to take a detailed course to learn various uses of WordPress.
Organic SEO techniques allowed by search engines do not guarantee results within a given time. However, many online marketing experts believe that regularly updating high-quality content paired with SEO can increase traffic to a website over time.
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Author: Alkire Leanna
Alkire Leanna is a North Carolina-based freelance writer and work-from-home for Ritely and mother of two. In her 10 years as a professional writer, she's worked in proposal management, grant writing, and content creation. Personally, she's passionate about teaching her family how to stay safe, secure and action-ready in the event of a disaster or emergency.
