Gone are the days when making websites are for pros only, and you’d find the need to hire a professional to make you a website. With WordPress, making a website is now accessible to everyone.
Having a website should be your priority if you’re a business owner. This is an excellent way of introducing your brand to people, marketing your products, and even being where your customers can buy or avail of your products and services. Take advantage of this marketing strategy especially if you plan to sell on Amazon FBA.
But how exactly does WordPress SEO works, and how can you utilize this to maximize your reach? This article will talk about just that and the tips you can do when making your WordPress website SEO-optimized. Read on further to know how you can do this for your business.
What is SEO?
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of optimizing a website, so it can rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), thereby increasing its visibility and organic traffic.
Now, you might ask, “why is this important for my business?” You should make it a point to prioritize this because the higher you rank in SERPs, the more likely people are to find and visit your site. When more people visit your site, there’s a great chance that you could convert these into leads and possibly lead to making a sale.
How to Do Keyword Research and Why Is It Important?
Before taking the needed steps to optimize your website for any keyword, you first have to know which ones to target. You’ll get this through keyword research with the help of different tools. There are several ways to achieve this, and one of the most effective and popular ones is through the Google Keyword Planner tool.
There are other keyword tools you can use for your research. But the Keyword Planner tool is convenient, especially if you’re just starting. To use this tool, you’d need a Google Ads account which you already have by default if you already have a Gmail account.
Once logged in to Google Ads, go to Tools > Keyword Planner. Select the “search for new keywords using a phrase, website, or category,” then enter the seed keyword in the “Your product or service” field. Afterward, click on “Get Ideas.”
Scroll down until you get to the “Keyword Ideas” part. Here, you’ll see a list of the suggested keywords you can incorporate into your listings. Choose a keyword (or a few related keywords) that you want to target, and then click on it to see more information about that keyword.
On-page SEO Tips for WordPress
On-page SEO is all about optimizing your blog posts and web pages so they can rank higher in SERPs.
Here are some on-page technical SEO tips you can use to optimize your WordPress blog posts and pages:
Choose a catchy and descriptive title: Write a title that accurately describes the content of your post or page, and make sure it’s interesting enough to make people want to click on it.
Use keyword-rich titles: Include your target keyword in your title, but don’t stuff it there. A good rule of thumb is to keep your title under 60 characters, so it doesn’t get cut off in SERPs.
Use keyword-rich meta descriptions: In addition to your title, each of your blog posts and pages has a meta description. This is a short summary of what your article is about that appears under your title in SERPs.
Make sure to incorporate the keywords into the meta descriptions and title. However, unlike your title, there’s no hard-and-fast rule for how long your meta description should be.
Include keywords in your URL: When possible, try to include keywords in the URL of your blog post or page. For example, if you’re writing a post about SEO tips, you might want to use a URL like example.com/seo-tips/.
Use keyword-rich anchor text: Use keyword-rich anchor text if you’re linking to other websites or pages on your site. For example, if you’re linking to a post about SEO tips, you might want to use anchor text like “click here for some great SEO tips.”
Use images and videos: Search engines can also index images and videos in addition to text. So, if you have relevant images or videos on your website, be sure to include them in your blog posts and pages.
This will help your content rank higher in SERPs, but it will also make it more likely that people will click on your result when they see it.
Off-page SEO Tips for WordPress
When you are optimizing your website for the signals that search engines look for when ranking websites, this is covered under off-page SEO. These signals include the following:
Backlinks: Backlinks are links that come from other websites directed to your website. Search engines read these links as “votes” for your website. The more votes you have, the higher your ranking in the SERPs will be.
Social media signals: Social media signals are likes, shares, and other interactions on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Like backlinks, social media signals are seen as votes for your website, and they can help improve your website’s ranking in SERPs.
Here are some off-page SEO tips you can use to get more backlinks and social media signals for your WordPress website:
Create great content: The first and most important step to getting more backlinks and social media signals is to create content that people will want to link to and share. So, take some time to brainstorm ideas for blog posts and other types of content that will be valuable to your target audience.
Reach out to other bloggers: Once you have some great content, reach out to other bloggers in your niche and let them know about it. If they like what you’ve created, there’s a good chance they’ll link to it or share it on social media.
Submit your website to directories: There are plenty of web directories, and submitting your website to some of them can help you get more backlinks. Just submit your website to quality directories relevant to your niche.
Use WordPress SEO plugins
Plenty of great WordPress plugins can help you with your on-page and off-page SEO. Here are a few of our favorites:
Yoast SEO: Yoast SEO is a popular WordPress plugin that helps you with both on-page and off-page SEO. You can get it for free but if you want to take advantage of its additional features, there’s a premium version that you can avail of.
All in One SEO Pack: All in One SEO Pack is another popular WordPress plugin that offers free and premium versions. While it doesn’t have as many features as Yoast SEO, it’s still a great option for those on a budget.
SEO Friendly Images: SEO Friendly Images is a WordPress plugin that helps you optimize your images for SEO. It automatically adds alt text and title tags to your images, making them more likely to rank high in image search results.
Final Thoughts
By following the tips in this article, you can optimize your WordPress website for SEO. Remember to focus on creating great content, optimizing your website for users and search engines, and building quality backlinks. These are considered little efforts but you can already see a significant increase in your website traffic from the organic search alone.