WordPress is unarguably one of the most widely used Content Management Systems. It’s easy to implement, and you don’t
even need to be a programmer.
WordPress SEO is not different from regular SEO. But how can you apply traditional SEO techniques to a WordPress site?
The designers of WordPress have created a platform that any beginner can use with ease with no coding knowledge. They’ve grouped solutions to problems and made plugins that you can use simply with a click.
1. Use WordPress Plugins for SEO
WordPress has tons of pre-made plugins you can use to implement different types of functionality on your site. You have to install and activate them in your WordPress Admin Panel. There are many SEO plugins, but which one should you use? These are the top SEO WordPress plugins you can use to enhance your website.
W3 Total Cache
This plugin will cache your pages to make them load faster when the user revisits your site.
Elementor
You can use the Elementor plugin if you cannot find a UX- and SEO-friendly theme. This plugin is a drag-and-drop page creator for WordPress. It lets you create stunning Web pages using a visual editor. This plugin makes it easy to create dynamic websites quickly.
SEO Plugins (AIO SEO, Yoast SEO, or Rank Math SEO)
AIO SEO can be your lifesaver if you’re drowning in SEO. It is a great WordPress plugin for SEO. It will take care of all the essential SEO elements you need to put on your website.
The Yoast SEO Plugin will make it easy for you to learn how to optimize your content and meta descriptions using a traffic light system to help you to learn as you go (I love this plugin and it’s free). If you are struggling with content SEO this plugin will help you right now!
Smush Image Compression & Optimization
Images must load as fast as possible when users visit your site. Smush Image Compression & Optimization will help you achieve this. It will compress all images uploaded to your website once activated.
2. Use an SEO-Friendly Theme
When setting up a WordPress website, the most important thing is selecting a suitable theme. Never choose a theme solely from a user experience (UX) perspective. Rather choose a theme that is responsive and mobile-friendly. If it doesn’t load fast then move on and choose a faster one (Astra).
Always test the demo theme using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Testing Tool. As Google gradually switches to mobile-first indexing, it is best to choose a mobile-friendly theme. What does this all mean? It means that Google will index your mobile pages.
Avoid themes that require you to install third-party plugins. Google values fast-loading websites and considers this a ranking signal. You should avoid wasting resources on your website. Aim for attractive, simple, and fast!
3. Use Internal Linking
Because it allows crawlers to understand your website’s hierarchy, internal linking is a crucial part of SEO. It helps users find new pages, improves website flow, and passes link equity.
Always link to the crucial pages on your website from other parts. There are many methods to link to important pages from different parts of your website. Here are some of the options:
Blog Articles
Like footers, links appropriate anchor texts within your blog posts. This improves internal linking and keeps users engaged.
Footer
Although footers may not add any value to users, they can be precious for search engines because it allows them to discover new pages. It will enable you to make internal links on key anchor texts (keywords), which is extremely important for SEO.
Featured Posts/Popular Articles/Sidebar with Links
Featured posts can be an excellent way for users to see the most popular and frequently accessed content on your site while also linking to other pages on your website.
It helps improve your website’s internal linking and engages your users. It is best to have two sections, one showing the latest articles and the most popular.
Use Breadcrumbs
You can use breadcrumbs to show search engines and users the structure and hierarchy of your website. This is a great way to link pages from your website together, such as the category pages, the home page, product pages, and blog pages.
Breadcrumbs are not only SEO-friendly, but they also benefit users by allowing them to navigate to other pages. The Yoast plugin makes it easy to enable breadcrumbs on your site.
Search for Breadcrumbs
This will only work if your installed WordPress theme supports breadcrumbs. You can either change the theme to support breadcrumbs or hire a developer.
4. Optimize Your URL Structure
This is an essential aspect of SEO. Make sure to use clear, concise, and informative Uniform Resource Locators in the SEO world. Why is this important? Users might not find it beneficial to look at URLs too long or too short in search results. This can result in a lower click-through rate (CTR) and less traffic.
So make the titles of your blog posts around 5 words and keep it clear!
WWW OR non-www
You will have noticed that certain websites contain “www” in their URLs, while others don’t. For example, the URL for my website is “https://cleveraffiliatesuccess.com/” while the URL for Wealthy Affiliate’s website is “https://www.wealthyaffiliate.com/”
Google stated that the non-www and www versions are considered references to different websites. To avoid duplicate content, only use one version and not both.
Select the version you prefer and enter it in your WordPress admin panel as the WordPress Address URL or Site Address URL. These options are available under Settings > General.
WordPress will automatically redirect URLs to the preferred version. It offers multiple URL types, so you can choose the one you like for your page.
HTTPS or HTTP
Google rates HTTPS websites higher than HTTP sites.
Types of URLs
- Permalink
You can use the primary keyword as the URL for all important pages. It is a good idea to personalize the URLs for your blog pages.
- Post name
The post name is the best and most popular approach to setting permalinks. The URL gives users a quick overview of the page and can improve CTR.
You can customize the URL for a particular page using the WordPress ‘Edit’ option.
5. Create a Title and Meta Description
The essential parameters for SEO are title and Meta description. You can add any Meta tags you want to any website with the Yoast plugin.
AIO SEO creates a Meta description using variables from your websites such as H1, page number, and so forth. You can use these variables in the Meta description.
The best SEO practice is to create a unique and distinctive Title and Meta Description for each web page. After entering your title and description, the preview will show you how the snippet will look in search results.
This is where you capture the readers’ notice and make them want to click through to read your post.
6. Image Optimization
SEO is all about image optimization. It affects site speed and rankings in image searches. Users and crawlers will have a poor experience if high-resolution images load slowly and are large.
Google reports that 53% of mobile site visitors will abandon a page that does not load in three seconds. Websites with a lot of images tend to load slower. To rank high in image search results, you will need to optimize certain elements. You must optimize images on your website.
Image Resizing
The Smush plugin allows you to set default height and width values for all images. Any image exceeding these values will automatically be resized to the specified resolution. You can use your images’ space to define the values. This will prevent you from having large images stored on your server.
Alternatively, you can use WebP.
Google prefers images with smaller file sizes, which load quickly. You can reduce the image size without compromising quality or resolution by compressing them using WebP. WebP images are 25-34% smaller than JPEG images and 26 percent smaller than PNG images.
So if you are having issues with loading images check out WebP.
Image Compression
You can reduce the image size to make them load faster by using the WordPress plugin Smush Image Compression & Optimization. Once you have activated it, it will automatically compress and optimize all images you uploaded.
You can compress images you previously uploaded before activating this plugin using the “Bulk Smush” option. A free user can compress up to 50 images at once. You will need to upgrade to the Pro version to compress more images.
Conclusion
The WordPress website is SEO-friendly. But, simply installing WordPress on your site won’t get it on the first page. WordPress is a tool that helps you implement SEO strategies and techniques flawlessly.
What will get you noticed is quality articles that answer the questions of readers coming to your website, a website that loads super fast and gives value.
I hope that this article has helped you to understand how WordPress can take a lot of the headache out of building a website business. If you are wanting to create a successful business you can read here how to build a website in 3 minutes for free.
Leave a comment so I can help you succeed.
Warm Regards,
Lily Munday
I currently use WordPress SEO for my website and I can say that it is absolutely amazing. It really gives you an idea of how good your website is and if you need to make some sort of changes. I would recommend to everyone to use the WordPress SEO. I can promise you that you will not be disappointed.
I’m delighted that you have found WordPress as amazing as I have. It’s so easy to use and a solid hosting platform.
This was really amazing, I didn’t use most of these things listed here and it just made me feel like I have been missing out on so much, thank you so much for this amazing article you put out here. It’s always a pleasure to learn from your articles. Thank you so much
I’m sure you will have a ball finding out all the things that you can do with WordPress now that you know the tricks. Have fun and build a huge website business.