Best WordPress SEO Practices for Beginners
Beginners in SEO confront a significant number of difficulties. Because there are so many things to do and learn at the beginning, it is impossible to discriminate between the tasks that are vital and should be done first and the duties that are less significant and can be performed later. This is because there are so many things to do and learn.
It is correct to say that one may get a great deal of information regarding “WordPress SEO” on the internet.
The difficulty arises from the fact that if you are new to both WordPress and SEO in general, you are unsure of how to get started or which direction to go in.
You are aware that you want to accelerate the growth of your website’s traffic as much as is humanly possible, but you are unsure how the many best practices and SEO concepts may be applied to a WordPress website.
In this essay, you will discover how to approach the search engine optimization (SEO) of a WordPress website, whether it is new or already established, by following SEO best practices that have been demonstrated to be effective.
The following are the 7 stages that need to be followed:
1. Opt for a WordPress theme that is optimized for search engines.
2. Opt for a Web hosting service that is SEO-friendly.
3. Ensure that your website is protected by a secure server.
4. Conduct an audit of your technical SEO.
6. Produce content that caters to the needs of the users’ intended purposes.
7. Drive traffic to your website (Off-Page SEO)
1. Opt for a WordPress theme that is optimized for search engines.
Because it will be difficult, if not impossible, to enhance your results without using a theme that is optimized for search engine optimization (SEO), I thought it would be best to put this at the top of the list.
From my observations, a significant number of individuals either don’t know what to look for in a WordPress theme to ensure that it is favorable to search engines or they choose to disregard this entirely, which is a significant error.
How do you choose a theme that is search engine optimized?
The following characteristics are indicative of a high-quality WordPress theme:
It is compatible with mobile devices — It is essential to have a website that is compatible with mobile devices, and if the WordPress theme you are using is not responsive, now would be an excellent time to think about redesigning your website.
This is important for a variety of different reasons.
To begin, in 2013, Google started using mobile friendliness as a ranking signal. This means that if your website is not optimized for mobile, then you are missing out on the fifty percent of potential traffic that is navigating the web on mobile devices. In other words, you are losing out on business.
Second, because you are not utilizing the numerous advantages that a responsive design can provide to an online business, your conversion rates and sales may suffer as a result of this.
It provides support for schemas right out of the box . Even while schemas, also known as structured data representation, have not yet been incorporated into Google’s ranking algorithm, using them is something that can assist your attempts to improve your website’s search engine optimization (SEO).
In a nutshell, schemas, also known as microdata, is a method for describing the data you have to search engines through the use of specific tags in your HTML code.
When displaying rich snippets or knowledge graph entries in their search results, Google makes use of the information presented here.
If the schema information that you need is not already integrated into your theme, then you will need to either engage a developer to perform these modifications for you or make use of a plugin that is provided by a third party.
You can still make it work, but it would be much better if the theme had native support for structured data. You can still make it work.
It’s easy for programmers to use – A website built using WordPress is never still. During the lifetime of a website, there will inevitably be occasions in which you will be required to make modifications to the code that underpins the website.
The best WordPress themes come equipped with hooks and filters that make it easier for developers to make modifications in a timely and effective manner.
In most cases, this is accomplished through the utilization of a framework, which serves as an intermediary layer between the core files of WordPress and the theme (see further down for more information on this).
It loads quickly, and a website that loads quickly is something that everyone appreciates. Users are more likely to connect with and return to a website that loads without any delays, and Google gives websites that load quickly a minor ranking bump as a reward for loading quickly.
Even though there are many different methods that can be used to make a WordPress website load faster, if the theme that you are using was not created with speed in mind, it will be very difficult to attain loading rates that are in the range of two to four seconds.
A website can appear really lovely, but it can also load quite slowly if it has elements such as picture sliders, background videos, severe mouseover effects, custom animations, or visual editing plugins.
If you were forced to choose between a website that is both functional and quick to load and a website that is designed to amaze visitors but only functions over extremely high-speed Wi-Fi connections, you would be well advised to go with the former.
On-page search engine optimization work – When it comes to choosing a WordPress theme, your primary concern should be making sure that it is compatible with fundamental on-page SEO concepts such as the use of a single H1 tag per page, the proper output of ALT tags for images, and the proper output of page titles and descriptions. Although I have discussed on-page SEO numerous times in the past, I will reiterate that when it comes to choosing a WordPress theme, on-page SEO should be your primary concern.
• The appropriate application of canonical URLs, amongst many other things
Themes and frameworks for usage with WordPress that are recommended.
When it comes to my own websites or websites that we develop for our clients, we always go with studio press themes that are based on the powerful Genesis framework. Over the years, I had the opportunity to work with a number of different WordPress themes and frameworks. During that time, I worked with a variety of different WordPress themes and frameworks.
The fact that the Genesis framework and themes are widely regarded within the search engine optimization business as the most effective SEO themes currently on the market is the primary reason for this.
In addition to the website that you are currently reading, which was built on the Genesis framework, many of the most prominent websites on the Internet that are managed by SEO professionals are also built on Genesis.
It is not free, and you may have to pay as much as one hundred dollars to get started with the Genesis framework and a child theme, but it is one of the best investments you can make for your efforts to improve your website’s search engine optimization (SEO).
In addition to the positive effects on SEO, using these themes is simple (from an administrative point of view), and they are favorable to developers.
2. Opt for a Web hosting service that is SEO-friendly.
The next item on the agenda is hosting that is SEO-friendly. Your hosting provider may have an impact on your search engine optimization efforts, even if you are unaware of it.
I have seen instances in which hosting providers have added restrictions to a website’s robots.txt file to block bots from accessing a website’s full content. This can also be accomplished by limiting the number of times a website is crawled or by adding delays to the crawl rate. All of these things have a negative impact on your website’s search engine optimization.
I won’t provide a specific recommendation because there are many decent hosting providers available; nevertheless, I will add that WordPress functions more effectively on a VPS (virtual private server) hosting as opposed to shared hosting.
VPS hosting is the only option available to you if you take the running of your website or online business seriously.
If you go with a dependable hosting service, not only will your website function more quickly, but it will also be safer, and if you find yourself in need of assistance, you will get it quickly.
3. Ensure that your website is protected by a secure server.
How does search engine optimization relate to the security of WordPress? Websites that do not have adequate protection are susceptible to being hacked, which results in the addition of malicious code as well as outbound connections to websites with a poor reputation.
Hackers employ deceptively simple methods to get into websites and inject code that is only seen in specific contexts. As a result, website owners are often unaware that their sites have been compromised.
What is the result? Your rankings will suffer, and your website will be deleted from Google search results until you take steps to remove the malware and submit a request to have the decision reconsidered.
If you have ever been in this situation, you are aware of how irritating it can be, particularly if your income is dependent on your website.
When it comes to safety, the old adage “prevention is always better than cure” rings especially true.
4. Conduct an audit of your technical SEO.
We are now able to begin working on items that have a direct influence on rankings and traffic now that we have dealt with the previously mentioned key activities that have an indirect impact on your SEO.
In search engine optimization (SEO), the term “technical” refers to the configurations that need to be made in order to optimize the indexing of a website and ensure that there are no technical barriers that prohibit search engine bots from accessing the content of a website.
Check the following items to ensure that you are following best practices:
• Does your robots.txt file prevent search engines from accessing your website, or are they able to visit it?
• Has your XML Sitemap been submitted to Google and Bing and has it been optimized?
• Have you established a preferred domain for use with WordPress and Google Search Console?
• Do you offer users a sitemap that’s formatted in HTML?
• Do you have a personalized 404 page that has been configured correctly?
• Do you make proper use of redirects (301, 302) in your website?
• Is the configuration of your website set up to respond to requests using both http:// and http://www?
• Do you benefit from the utilization of structured data and schemas?
• Does your material contain any links that aren’t working properly?
• Does the Google search console indicate that there have been any crawl or not found errors?
• Have you ensured that the canonical URLs for each page of your website have been correctly set?
• Is it easy to use your website on a mobile device?
• Does your site have a breadcrumb navigation menu, and is it enabled and marked correctly?
• Do you implement “paging” in the correct manner for posts or pages that contain several pages?
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Is it defined appropriately in both your code and Google Search Console that your website supports more than one language if it is offered in more than one language?
• How long does it take to load?
• Do you use SSL?
Despite the fact that the word “technical” is being used, in order to address these challenges, you do not need to be a technical expert. You can read detailed instructions, complete with screenshots and annotations, in the SEO Course that I offer if you feel that something like this is too hard for you.
5. Optimize Your On page SEO
After you have completed all of the technical aspects of SEO, you can then turn your attention to the on-page aspects of SEO. As its name suggests, on-page SEO focuses on the page (or post) itself and the various ways in which it can be optimized more effectively.
The following are the most significant aspects that require careful consideration:
Titles that are friendly to SEO are possibly the most debated component of search engine optimization.
Because it is the first powerful signal that you can send to users and search engines, the title of a page is quite significant. The title should communicate the content of the page to the user and the search engine in fewer than sixty characters.
When I’m trying to teach how to write a decent page title, one of the examples that I like to mention most frequently is the one that Google AdSense use.
The same ideas apply to the page’s meta description, which is referred to as optimization of the meta description.
This section could be chosen by Google to display in the search results; hence, it is essential that it be informative and entertaining in order to get consumers to click on it and visit your website.
The description that Google AdSense use is as follows: (see screenshot above). Once more, you should take note of the method in which they employ the keywords “make money online,” “content monetization,” and “earn money” in a way that appears natural and alluring.
Optimization of the H1 tag – The H1 tag is an additional on-page SEO component to consider. As was just explained, this is dependent on the settings that you have chosen for your theme. Make sure that there is just one h1 tag on the page by following the instructions given above.
It is possible for the value of your H1 to be the same as the title of your page (this is the case with the majority of WordPress themes), or it may be a value that is very similar to the title.
The value of the H1 tag is “AdSense, turn your passion into profit” in the example involving AdSense.
Links that point to other pages on your website are referred to as internal links. Internal links are also known as in-site links.
You can use them to assist people in locating additional information on a particular subject, and at the same time, you can assist search engine crawlers in locating more pages from your website.
You are permitted to utilize keywords in the anchor text of the links you add to internal pages; however, unlike with connections to other websites, you shouldn’t overdo it.
You should strive to keep the length of your internal links minimal, and you should only add new ones when necessary.
It is common practice to include links inside your content that lead to websites that are hosted on servers outside of your own. These links are interpreted as “votes of trust” by Google, and they continue to be one of the variables that determine a page’s position in the search results.
The fact that links in general can be altered is a major issue in this day and age. A number of websites, in an effort to enhance their rankings, will contact other webmasters and ask them for links. They may ask for these links for free, they may ask for them for a charge, or they may offer them other incentives (for example, sending free products for reviews).
How does this relate to on-page search engine optimization? If Google feels that the links on your page that connect to other websites are part of a transaction, then your website will be penalized, and your rankings and trust with Google will plummet.
You should only link out when it is beneficial to your user, and you should avoid using keyword-optimized anchor texts unless it is natural to do so. This will help you avoid getting into a position like the one described above.
If you want to reference, recommend, or evaluate other items inside your content, you should utilize the rel=”nofollow” tag in those instances.
6. Produce content that caters to the needs of the users’ intended purposes.
Even though the material is going to be included in the on-page SEO process, I decided to break it out into its own area so that it would be given more weight.
When we were talking about content and SEO in the past, we focused on things like conducting keyword research to learn what users look for and publishing articles with original material that featured those keywords.
• Start over and do it again.
Things are not as they were. Understanding the user intent is now an essential part of content search engine optimization, which once focused on keywords.
If a piece of material does not take into consideration what the user is looking for when they type a particular keyword into Google, then that content has no chance of achieving high rankings.
Because Google is able to grasp user intent with the assistance of Rank Brain, their new automated system that is a component of the ranking algorithm, they have been successful in maintaining their users’ satisfaction and have been able to maintain a positive reputation.
This information is useful for us as webmasters and SEOs since it will assist us produce higher-quality content.
How? By doing a search for a keyword on Google and paying close attention to the sort of material (both in terms of structure and meaning) of the websites that show in the first five spots, you may determine which websites have the best content.
Therefore, the following is the new refined approach for writing SEO copy:
• Conduct research on relevant keywords to learn what people are searching for in Google in relation to your specialized field.
• For each of the prospective terms, analyze the results of the Google search in great detail and make sure you completely get the user intent.
• Produce content that is not only informative, insightful, and search engine optimization (SEO) friendly, but also satisfies the user intent.
• Start over and do it again.
How does content relate to search engine optimization for WordPress? Without having high-quality content, you won’t be able to obtain high ranks no matter how well you do with the technical and on-page aspects of SEO.
When discussing rankings and SEO on any platform, whether it be WordPress or another, it is essential not to overlook the significance of the content on a website.
7. Drive traffic to your website (Off-Page SEO)
Off-page search engine optimization is the final step in the process of optimizing your WordPress website.
All of the operations that have been carried out up to this point have been related to modifications or settings that can be adjusted on your website.
Off-page SEO involves providing search engines with additional reasons to place a higher level of trust in your website in comparison to others.
Link building: Back linking is by far the most popular strategy for off-page SEO, and for good reason. Because it is such a broad subject in its own right, many novices discover that it is challenging to comprehend and put into practice.
The following is a list of things about link building that you need to be aware of:
• Keep away from unethical linking techniques such as buying links or participating in link exchanges;
• Keep away from links that are simple to obtain such as spam links in comments and article directories; • Keep away from links that originate from websites or blogs of poor quality.
• Harmful links, such as those detailed in the previous paragraph, are not innocuous; in fact, they can hurt your rankings and get your website into problems (think Google Penalties).
• The presence of natural linkages is desirable and encouraged.
How do you obtain good links?
In a nutshell, the following are the greatest techniques to acquire powerful links that will make a difference in your rankings:
• Publish high-quality material (see to point 6 above) that justifies being linked to.
• Place your material in front of the people who are more inclined to link to it (social media is of great assistance in this regard);
• Establish contacts with other bloggers in your field and ensure that you keep them informed whenever you publish new information; if the information is of high quality and pertinent to their industry, they may choose to connect to it on their own accord.
• Produce excellent writing and try to have it published on respectable websites that are more popular than your own (guest posting).
The Essentials
If you are just starting out with WordPress SEO, one of the most important things you need to realize is that rankings are determined by a number of different criteria.
You need to begin by examining your website, namely the WordPress theme you are using, along with your hosting and security settings.
Then you will need to perform a comprehensive audit of your technical SEO and make certain that search engine bots are able to access and comprehend the content and structure of your website.
Your next priority should be to work on your on-page search engine optimization. This is the section where you have the opportunity to send a number of’signals’ to search engines about the significance of your content and the goals of your website.
Last but not least, do not for one second lose sight of the fact that the quality of your website’s content and how other websites on the internet perceive your website are directly related to its long-term success (this is known as off-page SEO).
