Chooding the best WordPress SEO strategy can be difficult. But, we’re here to walk you through everything you need to know. Let’s get started!
Although WordPress is the most widely used Content Management System (CMS) in the world, people are going to have a tough time trying to find your business website with a simple Google search unless you implement a robust WordPress SEO strategy as a core part of your digital marketing campaign. Yes, learning about WordPress SEO optimization can seem like a daunting and tedious task at first glance, but it is crucial to your online success.
While it is true that the WordPress software comes with some basic SEO settings already built-in, you’re going to need to maximize your WordPress SEO in order to stand out from the crowd. Like any effective and valuable skill in today’s market, developing an effective WordPress SEO strategy takes lots of time and experience to get it down right.
But if you’re like most business owners these days, you’re probably already strapped for time as it is. Fortunately, you can hire a WordPress development service team to take your WordPress SEO campaign to the next level.
In addition to improving your search ranking and adding credibility to your business, hiring a professional WordPress development team to integrate an effective WordPress SEO strategy can lead to significant cost savings and benefits for your business website that can potentially last for years.
In the meantime, business owners can use their time to focus on other areas of their business, namely, its growth. That being said, we have highlighted a few areas and easy-to-follow tips that can place your WordPress SEO strategy on the right path.
8 Tips To That Provide The Best WordPress SEO Strategy
- Make your Permalink Structure readable
By now, most people know that you can jump straight to specific sections of a website by typing the permalink next to the website URL on your browser. For example, you can type https://inovativhosting.com/blog/ to go to the blog page of our website to enjoy its wide array of awesome content.
When you leave the default permalink setting on WordPress, however, the URL may instead read something like this: https://inovativhosting.com/?p=123. Although this structure may seem more computer-friendly, Google actually prefers websites with readable permalink structures to boost your WordPress SEO.
To do this, simply change the Permalink Settings to “Post name” and you’re done. Your permalink now speaks human. For added control and improved SEO benefits you can also type in your targeted keywords in the “Slug” box to replace the default words WordPress will generate for you. - Set up your Google Search Console
Formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools, the Google Search Console can alert you if Google is having any issues with accessing, crawling or indexing your site content. In addition to letting you view the links to your website, the console can also highlight the keywords that are driving traffic to your site.
Remember, you want your site to be as Google-friendly as possible so switching on this simple but valuable feature is a no-brainer. - Your web-host matters
We have a deep appreciation of the enormous pressures that business owners have when starting a business. However, your business website is an asset that can potentially increase your chances of success exponentially and the costs are minimal when compared to most other business assets.
While most amateur clients will likely be tempted to choose the cheapest web hosting service provider they can find, we have seen time and time again the potential damages this can bring to a business brand and their bottom line.
A professional web hosting provider ensures that your site goes online, stays online, and that it loads fast. These issue shave a direct impact on your WordPress SEO quality and will boost your business credibility.
If you come across any technical problems, and rest assured they will happen, your web hosting provider will be on-call whenever you need them to expertly troubleshoot the issues. - Enhance your content with visual elements
The phrase “content is king” is often used to highlight the growing importance of developing content marketing strategies that could potentially reap big rewards for your business. Of course, the better the content, the better your chances are of success online over time.
However, creating original and engaging content on a consistent basis can become quite a challenge especially when you’re competing with thousands of other websites in the same industry.
To help your content stand out, you can use visual elements that will enable to enhance your blog content and helping to increase your reader engagement. For example, inserting a chart or a graph can make explaining data much easier and would help keep your readers from clicking away from your site.
Similarly, you can also use images to illustrate certain concepts or show e-com products so that your readers can get a better appreciation of what you are describing in your text. As they old saying goes: a picture is worth a thousand words! - Block those annoying SPAM comments
You know quality content plays a crucial role in any successful WordPress SEO strategy. While good content is certainly king in terms of its importance, bad content in the form of Spam comments, can have a damaging effect on your WordPress SEO overall.
Spam comments are left by users (spammers) using automated software to post their comments to thousands of sites at once. This enables them to build backlinks at-scale to their own websites.
On the surface, spammy comments may just look like a bunch of badly written text comments posted on your blog that distracts users and cheapens the appearance of your website. However, low-quality content can have a negative effect your on your overall WordPress SEO.
In fact, if your page accumulates enough spam comments, that page can be at risk of getting demoted or even removed by Google in order to protect the rest of the site.
Comments are automatically approved by default when you install WordPress. By making the approval manual in the Settings > Discussion section, however, you can review and choose which comments to approve or disapprove for your website. - Building links to your website
Unlike the “spammy” method described in the previous point, building backlinks to your site the right way, or the ethical way, can actually bring tremendous benefits that affect more than just your WordPress SEO.
Link building is the process whereby you acquire hyperlinks from other websites onto your own site. Google sees these hyperlinks to your site as a vote of confidence, and therefore slowly making you more of an authority as you gain more and more links.
Although link building is generally described as being one of the hardest techniques of WordPress SEO to execute properly, Google credits websites that have a higher number of quality backlinks.
The more quality backlinks your site contains, the more Google sees it as relevant. Therefore, the higher the relevancy, the better your chances are of ranking ahead of other sites in search query results.
While there are many ethical strategies that WordPress development professionals use to buildup backlinks, the main idea is that your site content adds value to other sites linking to you. - Upload an XML Sitemap
A while ago, HTML Sitemaps were mainly used to help users navigate through your website. These days, however, XML (External Markup Language) Site maps make it a lot easier for Google to find all your pages and posts to quickly get them indexed in a much quicker and more efficient manner.
Although XML sitemaps are no longer seen as a requirement for your your WordPress SEO strategy, it’s a tool that helps your content to quickly be much more accessible on the internet.
This is due to the categorizing features that XML sitemaps offer. In other words, your site will no longer look like a collection of content mixed together in a random order with a difficult-to-navigate structure.
In addition, there are some really great WordPress plugins that can easily notify Google whenever you add new content to your site. With the potential benefits and easy installation requirements, installing an XML sitemap on your WordPress site makes - Use SEO-friendly themes
WordPress themes define the appearance of your website and they come in free and paid versions. They also play an important role in your WordPress SEO.
Cost-averse clients typically opt for the free versions only to soon realize that “Free” usually means “Painfully Limited” in terms of its functionality. Even paid themes can present particular challenges that can affect your WordPress SEO like an overly complicated code structure that Google dislikes.
Choosing a theme that is SEO-optimized will helps ensure that your page loads are swift and that it provides a positive overall user experience for your visitors.
As you can tell by now, choosing the best WordPress SEO strategy is not as simple as adding a plug and play application on your website and waiting to see what happens next. A comprehensive WordPress SEO strategy entails having detailed knowledge, skills ans resources that will help your website rank higher in search engine results and increase conversions.
We at Innovative Solutions would be honored to help you with anything discussed in this article. Get your free quote today!