WordPress SEO Guide

The majority of people use WordPress as their website’s CMS because it is simple to operate and SEO-friendly.

But remember that WordPress is only a content management system. So just having WordPress in place isn’t sufficient to get you noticed by search engines.  

You can have your website appear at the top of a search engine results page (SERP) if you work on your website’s search engine optimization.

Is WordPress SEO simple or difficult? Is there a WordPress SEO guide that explains WordPress SEO basics?

Keep reading! This WordPress SEO guide will uncover a lot of WordPress basics for you!

To be on the first page of Google may sound like a dream to many, and some may even tell you it is impossible. 

But, we’re going to tell you otherwise.

In this WordPress SEO guide, we’ll describe Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and the way it works, simplify what’s involved in getting your WordPress SEO up and running, and show you how to optimize your site for higher search rankings.

What Is SEO?

SEO is a technique for improving a brand’s online visibility and ranking in search engine results pages. It enables us to build websites that are further search engine friendly and provide an enhanced user experience.

A variety of factors, including UI, on-page keywords, and links influence a website’s online presence. Besides that, many aspects of SEO are not widely known. As a result, people are unable to fully utilize SEO to enhance the listing of their websites and content.

When people go online to look for the content you publish, your SEO-optimized topics will appear at the top in the search results, increasing the number of people who click through to your website.

Also, it’s important to remember that search engines use techniques that are still evolving. Additionally, search engine updates are made to assist search engines in providing results that are of better quality.

Check out the quick SEO guide for more details on SEO marketing

Importance of SEO

You created your website with a specific goal in mind, and you want the visitors to be able to locate it. Understanding SEO can assist you in expanding your audience base. You’ll understand which design elements to prioritize and ways to create content that will get a lot of attention while also being of excellent quality for your site guests.

Furthermore, without SEO, all of your efforts will be futile, as having a website with poor visibility is nearly as bad as not having a website at all. Lastly, if your site isn’t getting enough visitors, knowing SEO can help you figure out why and guide you in implementing changes to boost your rankings.

Most business websites gain their web traffic from search engines.

Search engines like Google use sophisticated algorithms to comprehend and rank pages in search results. However, those methodologies could be better; they still require your assistance to grasp your content.

If your content is not optimized then search engines will not comprehend how to rank your content. Therefore, it is essential for all business owners to optimize their search traffic by making their website search engine friendly.

How Does WordPress SEO Works?

Google maintains a list of websites that it uses to display in search results. It would be impractical for humans to physically maintain this list because it is constantly changing. As a result, Google employs web crawlers, which are computer programs that systematically explore the Internet and refresh the list.

These crawlers not only collect information but also organize it. When you do a search, you can get massive results in a fraction of a second.

These crawlers, according to Google, provide special consideration to new websites, modifications to current sites, and dead links. This means you don’t have to tell Google about your WordPress website for it to appear in search results.

Basically, most of the sites listed in search results aren’t manually uploaded; rather, they’re discovered and included by crawlers that are actively searching the web.

But why should you be concerned? It’s because understanding how search engines gather information regarding your site can assist you with higher ranks. This is the primary lesson here: search engines will automatically reward or penalize your site.

In simple terms, search engines operate based on three functions:

Crawling

This is the process by which a search engine crawls millions of web pages in search of appropriate content.

Indexing

Organize and archive the content discovered in the crawling process. When a user searches for data, search engines display the outcomes from their index.

Ranking

It is the process of categorizing and ordering content depending on quality and relevance. That is, if your page is ranked first for a specific query, it will be displayed first for that search query.

WordPress SEO Tools and Plugins

An SEO plugin is a WordPress extension that lets you execute search engine optimization (SEO) tasks on your website. 

These tasks involve editing aspects of your website’s code structure so that search engines can crawl and index it more easily.

For example, you can:

• Change your meta description and title tag to notify search engines about your content.
• Enhance your social media metadata to display content details on social media platforms.
• To avoid duplicate content issues, you can add canonical tags to particular pages.
• Look for opportunities to provide internal linking.

And so on.

An SEO tool, on the other hand, gives you notifications and data about the general health of your site. 

As a result, they can assist you in identifying possibilities for enhancing your SEO as well as shortcomings that prevent you from ranking higher.

This WordPress SEO guide will take you through the list of SEO plugins for your WordPress site.

The WordPress plugins listed beneath will assist you in implementing an SEO strategy on your website. These are frequently simpler to comprehend and install, and you can select from a variety of plugins with various features.

Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is a well-known WordPress SEO plugin for optimizing your WordPress website to rank higher in search engine results.

It makes it simple to update SEO titles and descriptions on all of your website’s posts and pages. It also allows you to include Open Graph metadata and social media images in your articles.

This SEO plugin generates an XML sitemap for your website’s content, making it simpler for search engines to crawl your site. It also makes it simple to import your SEO data if you previously used another SEO plugin.

It aids in finding the right equilibrium between creating content for humans and content for search engines.

Some of the key features are

• Content and SEO analysis: This feature examines your website pages and blogs for readability and SEO enhancements.
• The Redirection tool allows you to perform 301 redirects, which allow you to direct visitors from one page to another of your choice.
• Tracking of internal links.
• Integration with Google Search Console.
• To avoid redundant data and Google penalties, create canonical URLs.
• Allows you to customize what people see in Google when you appear on the search engine results page.
• Permits you to include a primary keyword in your content.
• Creates an XML sitemap for all of your content automatically, making it even easier for search engines to crawl.
• Make your website’s breadcrumbs more user-friendly.
• Allows you to include Open Graph metadata as well as social media images in your posts.

Check out the Yoast beginner’s guide to know how to set SEO in WordPress using YOAST SEO plugin.

The SEO Framework is a robust WordPress SEO plugin with numerous useful functionalities. Its automation is what distinguishes it. It can provide SEO ratings depending on your content and other players in the market. All while ensuring that your website speed remains fast. 

Their extension manager plugin provides additional features, such as guiding you through the method for generating content with an emphasis on keywords and synonyms. 

And automatically adds schema-structured data to your posts, and much more.

This plugin is suitable for you if,

• You’re merely beginning to creating SEO-friendly content.
• You’re tired of stuffing awkward keywords into your writing and are keen to write more organically.
• You want a simple way to automatically detect SEO errors and optimize them.

Some of the key features are

• The SEO Framework plugin does not try to sell you anything. It has most of the features same as Yoast, but you don’t have to pay for extensions or premium functionalities.
• The visually appealing, colored meter/scale makes it easier to determine whether your page will rank high on Google.
• It includes a local SEO extension for businesses that need to establish and showcase essential local business data.
• The comment spam extension eliminates the need for a separate plugin.
• The majority of the SEO settings are preconfigured, so there is little to configure after the plugin is installed.
• Unlike other plugins, The SEO Framework focuses on the focus keywords to inspire more organic writing because Google recognizes synonyms in SERPs as the same thing.

Check out The SEO Framework – WordPress SEO guide to know how to set up WordPress SEO

SEOPress

SEOPress is yet another easy-to-use and effective WordPress SEO plugin. It encompasses all of the features to cover the  WordPress SEO basics.

Such as 

• Meta title
• Meta description
• Open Graph support
• Image and content XML sitemaps
• Redirects, and more.

It has a simple setup for novices as well as sophisticated controls for more experienced players. In terms of functionalities and options, it is nearly equivalent to other top WordPress SEO plugins in the business.

The free version also includes content evaluation to assist administrators in writing better posts. Developers can configure the plugin using more than 75 hooks.

Some advanced features of this plugin are

• SEO for small businesses.
• Breadcrumbs that are SEO and accessibility friendly.
• Optimizations for WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads.
• Sitemaps for video and Google News in XML
• Integrate Google Page Speed v5 to evaluate the performance of your pages rapidly.
• 404 monitoring and page redirections.
• Google Analytics statistics are available in your WordPress dashboard.
• There will be no advertisements, and your editors will find a meta box with no regard for SEOPress. The same happens with the admin bar.
• It allows you to quickly add Google Analytics tracking to your website. 

You can set up custom dimensions, enable remarketing, demographics, IP Anonymization, cross-domain tracking, and more.

• Twitter meta tags and Facebook open graph data can be added quickly and easily.

Check out the WordPress SEO guide to learn how to set up WordPress SEO using SEOPress

Rank Math

Rank Math is a widely known and user-friendly WordPress SEO plugin for optimizing your web pages for search engines. During the setup process, it includes a novice setup wizard for importing data from other SEO plugins.

You can include meta titles, meta descriptions, and Open Graph metadata in your blog posts using this plugin. You can also use it to create XML sitemaps and link your website to Google Search Console.

You can even restrict who has access to the plugin’s features based on their user role. While Rank Math is a feasible option, keep in mind that your WordPress website should only have one SEO plugin.

Some of the key features are

• It is an all-in-one option for all of your SEO requirements.
• Every web page is subjected to 40-factor SEO analysis.
• The user interface is spotless, and the features are simple to grasp.
• It allows you to include alt or title tags to images that are missing them.
• Rank Math includes a 404 monitor that notifies you when users encounter errors.
• It also includes a Redirection component, which allows you to redirect 404 errors to more useful pages on your website.
• The XML Sitemap module is included with Rank Math, and the plugin also automatically pings search engines whenever you make modifications to your posts.
• Breadcrumbs are also included in the plugin, so you don’t need to use a different plugin for that.
• Support for Open Graph and Twitter Cards is included.

Check out the WordPress SEO guide to learn how to set up WordPress SEO using Rank Math

SEO Squirrly

SEO Squirrly is marketed mainly to non-SEO experts. It stays true to that claim by providing a comprehensive SEO suite free of complicated features. SEO Squirrly creates SEO recommendations in a different manner than the other plugins we’ve discussed. You proceed by entering your blog post topic. 

The preferred keyword is also loaded in so that when you begin with your content writing, a sequence of green lights is enabled in real-time. It’s almost as if an expert is uttering into your ear as you write.

Some of the features are

• You optimize the keywords as you write the article. This makes your job a little easier.
• If you want to swap your current WordPress SEO plugin with Squirrly, it will retain all of your previous settings.
• A tool exists that analyses your rivalries to determine how you can surpass them.
• It includes content reports that you can share with others in your entity. 

Check out SEO Squirrly’s WordPress SEO guide for more information on how to improve SEO on WordPress websites.

Broken Link Checker

This broken link checker WordPress plugin supervises and evaluates both internal and external links on your website.

You can use this plugin to automatically screen and repair crappy and broken links on your website. It keeps track of links from pages, posts, blog comments, and custom fields. As a result, you can be confident that no broken links exist on your business website.

It detects broken image links, bad links, and redirected links.

Within a few minutes, all cracked links are revealed. So you can go ahead and eliminate them or substitute them with better links. If you leave the plugin running, it will keep exploring your site and alert you whenever a link breaks via email or dashboard notifications.

There are additional useful features that contribute to the plugin’s excellence. One such feature is that the plugin displays broken links in your posts in a unique way. This plugin’s other useful feature is that it prevents search engines from pursuing broken links.

Some of the feature highlights are

• Monitors both internal and external links
• Examines posts, web pages, comments, and more for broken links.
• WordPress dashboard and email notifications
• Missing image detection and redirection
• Broken links are displayed differently in posts.
• Search for and filter to rule out broken links
• Directly edit links from the plugin page.
• Overall, Broken Link Checker is a fantastic WordPress plugin for automatically checking for broken links without having to spend a dime.

Check out the  Broken Link Checker’s WordPress SEO guide to know how to fix broken links using the Broken Link Checker plugin.

Rel NoFollow Checkbox

Before linking to other web pages, keep in mind that Google takes those links seriously. The search engine is keen on the caliber of those links as well as the reliability of the links that point back to your site. The reason for this is that Google considers having hundreds of links directing to spammy sites to be manipulative and ineffective to users. This plugin is ideal for anyone who has affiliate links.

Adding “Rel Nofollow” attributes to all external links is a means of guaranteeing that your links aren’t negatively impacting your rankings.

The Rel Nofollow Checkbox Plugin allows website designers to add Rel Nofollow to external links on your web pages.

This plugin assists by including a checkbox for the post editors’ add link popup in WordPress. This popup already includes a checkbox that allows you to launch links in a separate tab. You can now easily nofollow an external link by checking a box whenever you add one.

The plugin comes for free. So if you want a tool just to include nofollow link, this tool can be quite beneficial to you.

Some of the key features are:

• As it is lightweight, your site will remain fast.
• You have the chance to enhance your SEO without having to spend a significant amount of time sifting through HTML.
• It makes things easier for non-programmers.
• A must-have plugin for affiliate marketers.
• The installation takes a couple of minutes, and there are no settings to configure.

Check out the WordPress SEO guide to get started with Rel NoFollow Checkbox plugin.

All in One Schema Rich Snippets

You can take advantage of all the benefits provided by the most prevalent schema markup plugins by using the Schema- All In One Schema Rich Snippets plugin. Schema types such as Feedback, Events, Recipes, Blogs, Products, and Services will be simple to implement.

When this plugin, you will be capable of creating a short summary of the webpage that appears on Google, Yahoo, and Bing in addition to the star reviews, images, and creator information displayed in the search results of Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Furthermore, search engines are given only the most essential and accurate information to showcase in their search result snippets, guaranteeing that their findings are precise and pertinent.

Besides that, this plugin can create factual data for your links to external websites.

Some of the key features are:

• Supports a wide range of schema types
• You can stand out from the crowd by using engaging rich snippets and schema markup.
• Displays the relevant information on Facebook.
• In the long term, there are intentions of releasing breadcrumbs, local business listings, and books.
• Improves your position in search engine rankings
• Google searches give users a more visual structure. Google and users both like this.

Check out the All in One Schema Rich Snippets – WordPress SEO guide for more information on how to improve SEO on a WordPress website.

WordLift

WordLift streamlines website SEO by analyzing all content, including structured data or schema markup, and making it Google-friendly. This plugin employs artificial intelligence to recognize unique words on the site and convert them into metadata. During the process, users can manually select which keywords they prefer, thereby influencing the appearance of the website’s knowledge graphs.

You can use WordLift’s Knowledge Graph to

• Improve your website’s competence, authority, and integrity; improve internal link building, which makes it simpler for Google to recognize the significance of pages, their correlation, and their importance;
• Increase the amount of time users spend on the site by twice
• Boost organic traffic during the initial few months of use.

Some of the key features are:

• Arranging references to external and internal sources;
• Recommending relevant content to visitors, guiding them to archived pages, and thus boosting user engagement
• Text enrichment with rich snippets
• Google Data Studio tool integration for extensive data analysis and reports.

Check out the WordPress SEO guide to learn how to set up WordPress SEO using WordLift

Redirection

The Redirection plugin does precisely what its name suggests. It redirects and tracks 404 errors. It is feasible to set up redirection duties using the plugin without prior knowledge of Apache or Nginx.

This 404 redirect plugin’s redirect options enable you to minimize discrepancies on your website. Dozens of customizations, which include login status redirects, enable this software to be used to avoid errors

The redirection tool can simply detect variations in your website permalinks and produce redirect URLs based on the observed changes.

You can save information about visitors to your website as well as track all redirects made through your site by using the plugin’s logging feature.

Some of the key features are

• It is accessible in a variety of languages and for free
• IP address based redirection
• Redirection based on page type
• Redirection based on role capability
• Errors can be handled in bulk as a group and directed.
• Automatically updates the permalinks on a blog post or webpage.
• In WordPress, you can implement multiple types of redirects. 
• Maintains, records, and revises 404 redirects

Check out the WordPress SEO guide to learn how to improve WordPress SEO using Redirection.

Slim SEO

Often these WordPress SEO plugins are packed with settings and options that figuring out how to use can be difficult. That isn’t always a disadvantage, but depending on your preferences, you may choose to employ a tool that doesn’t needs you to spend a lot of time configuring it.

The main selling point of Slim SEO is its ability to automatically create meta tags, sitemaps, schema markup, and redirects. The plugin also assists you in configuring Open Graph meta tags and also how your content will show up on social media.

Slim SEO also allows you to include custom code to your header and footer. This is ideal for integrating tracking solutions like Google Analytics or other different kinds of tracking code.

Slim SEO lacks on-page analysis functionality when compared to other plugins in the business. However, if you’re comfortable running optimizations without a cheat sheet, this plugin is a viable option.

Some of the prominent features are:

• Slim SEO has the capacity to automatically create meta tags, and sitemaps, and include schema markup to your blog posts and web pages.
• The plugin allows you to configure redirects for author pages.
• When users share your content on social media, the plugin allows you to modify it.
• It is simple to set up, and the default settings should be adequate for most users.

Check out the WordPress SEO guide to learn how to set up WordPress SEO using Slim SEO.

Internal Link Juicer

Internal Link Juicer is an excellent WordPress auto-internal linking plugin. It is an open-source WordPress plugin with numerous useful features for controlling internal linking. 

You don’t have to manually link your pages every time you publish a fresh post with this WordPress plugin. 

However, once all of the keywords have been entered, links will be generated automatically. It’s a highly customizable WordPress plugin. 

Manual optimization is also supported, but only in the pro version. The free version, on the other hand, is jam-packed with useful options and capabilities.

Some of the key features are

• You can have as many links as you want with the least amount of effort.
• The links are created automatically after the keywords are configured.
• It offers features to help you enhance your search engine results.
• You can increase your scalability with this WordPress SEO plugin.
• It gives you complete control over the output of your links.
• Internal Link Juicer includes automatic keyword import.
• It gives you full authority over linking pages.
• You can rapidly blacklist relevant posts with links that you don’t want to see.
• You can easily personalize created links to your specific context.
• With the Internal Link Juicer WordPress plugin, you can maximize your SEO potential while also improving your website’s user experience.

Check out the WordPress SEO guide to learn more about Internal Link Juicer plugin.

XML Sitemaps

The XML Sitemaps plugin is simple to use. After you install the plugin, you can specify if you want it to notify search engines about each update of your website. There is also the option to generate an HTML sitemap.

Aside from those fundamental settings, the plugin will create a complete sitemap for your website. You can indeed submit that sitemap to search engine webmaster tools like Google Webmaster Tools, but that is entirely up to you.

The plugin gives you a lot of options for configuring your sitemap:

• Exempt specific content sections from your sitemap or the whole categories/tags.
• Set the crawl priority for various kinds of content on your website.
• Set up automatic crawl priority rules, such as giving posts with many comments a higher priority.
• Set the frequency of change for various content types.
• Change your sitemap’s URL.
• It also has a function that enables you to automatically ping Google and Bing anytime you make changes to your website.

Check out the WordPress SEO guide to learn more about the XML sitemaps plugin.

Schema and Structured Data Plugin for WP & AMP

Schema markup can alter the appearance of your content on Search Engine Results. Rich snippets are used when search results include images, ratings, and product prices in addition to regular meta descriptions. You must include schema markup in your content for rich snippets to appear.

The WordPress plugin is simple to use. The Schema & Structured Data for WP & AMP plugin lets you enhance your website SEO by including Schema and Structured Data markup on your site. This helps search engines like Google recognize your content better.

More than 35 schema types are supported by the plugin, which includes 

• Blog Posting
• News Articles
• Local Businesses
• Web pages
• Articles
• Recipes
• Products
• Video Objects, and others.

The plugin allows you to add or exempt rich snippets of schema markup from blog posts, web pages, post types, taxonomies, and more!

The plugin works with the AMP for WordPress and AMP by Automattic plugins. Furthermore, it supports breadcrumbs listing, and archive page listing, and provides excellent customer support.

You can import data from other well-known WordPress schema markup plugins.

Check out the WordPress SEO guide to learn more about the Schema and Structured Data Plugin for WP & AMP plugin.

Up next in this WordPress SEO guide, let’s explore the WordPress SEO basics to improve SEO in your WordPress website.

Start With On-Page WordPress SEO

On-page WordPress SEO influences the content you develop for individual web pages, such as articles, blog posts, and product pages, as well as the structure of that page information. Now you know what the terms “keywords” and “key phrases” mean.  They are essential for creating SEO-friendly content on WordPress.

On-page SEO, in a nutshell, incorporates specific keywords or phrases into various components of individual web pages. 

This WordPress SEO strategy, known as “keyword optimization,” assists search engines in understanding the page intent and, as a result, ranks at the top of search results for optimized keywords and relevant phrases.

Select a robust SEO plugin

WordPress SEO plugins assist you in optimizing WordPress sites by providing features to improve various aspects of the site. These functionalities include on-page analysis, a sitemap generator, and schema markup.

Here are some factors to remember before selecting a WordPress SEO plugin for your business website:

Price

Check the plugin’s pricing structure to see if they fit your estimate.

Prominent features

Examine each feature to see how it can enhance your website’s SEO.

User-friendliness

Examine the plugin’s interface to decide its level of complexity. Newcomers should ignore plugins that need technical expertise to use.

Comprehensive keyword research

Many beginners make predictions about what concepts individuals are searching for as well as what they should include in their sites and blogs.

It’s similar to shooting an arrow with no target. You don’t have to do that when you could use actual data to figure out what folks want.

Content creators and SEO experts use keyword research as a research tactic. It assists you in identifying keywords that users input into search engines in order to locate content, products, and services related to your business.

So you can then utilize those phrases and keywords to increase search traffic to your website.

Keywords are classified into two types:

Short-tail keywords

Such keywords have high search volumes and drive significant traffic to the website with up to three words.

Long-tail keywords

Keywords that are more than three words in length are likely to generate less organic traffic. Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, have fewer rivalries and a better chance of ranking in search engine results.

Long-tail keywords can support new business websites to rank faster. Short-tail keywords, on the other hand, are more efficient once a website has a large following.

Craft SEO-friendly and quality content

One can boost a website’s authority and ranking in search engine results by employing search engine-friendly and superior-quality content. When publishing blog posts or content resources, make certain that they are:

Intense research 

Every piece of content should precisely address a specific search intent and encompass all important points.

Exclusive

Create content that provides visitors with a distinct value.

Understandable

Employ simple language and short paragraphs to improve content readability.

Well-structured

Make use of headings to divide your content into segments.

Optimized in terms of length

The length of a post is determined by the content. Many content optimization tools offer a word count recommendation depending on the keyword and competitive posts.

Published on a regular basis

Focus on providing fresh and updated content on a regular basis. Visitors have a greater tendency to come back to websites that provide new content on a regular basis.

Furthermore, compose the content pieces with a specific target focus keyword in mind. This will give you a better idea of how to compose the content and position it for a particular keyword.

Avoid keyword stuffing, which is the practice of including too many search terms in the content, resulting in a poor ranking.

Avoid cannibalization

When several pages rank for the same keyword, this is known as keyword cannibalization. Although it might seem enticing, doing so will harm your cumulative SEO efforts.

Primarily, pages with the same keyword will end up competing with one another. As a result, they will distribute the click-through rate across various pages rather than just one. Furthermore, the search engine may invalidate the higher-converting page.

Make a spreadsheet with all of your site URLs and focus keywords to identify keyword cannibalization. Consider merging two or more URLs that target the same focus keyword or search intent.

Compelling meta description and meta title

Optimization of the meta title or title tag is essential for improving your possibilities of ranking for the intended keyword. A very well meta title will entice people to visit your website.

Here are some tips for making the most of your meta titles:

Keep it brief

A title tag that is too long will be cut off by search engines. The word count could be limited to not more than 60 characters.

Include the primary keyword

This will boost your rankings by informing search engines which SERPs your content or web page belongs in.

Make it one-of-a-kind

Every article or web page should have a meta title. The meta title should be relevant to the content even if it varies from the page title.

Stay away from clickbait

Clickbait is a misleading marketing strategy used to entice people to act on your links. This practice should be ignored because deceiving meta titles annoy visitors and leave a negative impression.

A meta description is an HTML component that explains the content of your page and drives organic traffic to it.

Here are some ways to improve them:

Add the primary keyword

When displaying SERPs, search engines emphasize keywords in meta descriptions. Although including keywords has no effect on ranking, it does increase traffic.

Write using the active voice and action verbs

Active voice and call-to-action phrases make your meta description sound more direct. Include the advantages of checking out your article or page to encourage people to execute the suggested actions.

Keep it brief

Target for between 50 and 160 characters. Long descriptions may be trimmed by search engines.

Avoid using quotation marks

After quotation marks, search engines may simply trim the description. Rather, use apostrophes.

Verify its relevance

Your meta descriptions should be appropriate for the content of your website. If this is not done, search engines may generate their own snippets.

Use heading tags for better hierarchy

Heading tags help to create a logical and understandable content structure. Screen readers can improve in-page navigation for those with visual impairments by using headings. Heading tags are also used by search engines to better understand the content.

H1 to H6 are the heading tags. The best practice is to make use of one H1 tag per piece of content. Because H1 is frequently the title, it must contain the focus keyword in order to rank higher in search results.

The H2 and H3 tags can be used to separate sections in the rest of the article. While H4 to H6 heading tags can be useful, they often develop poor readability.

Following are the best practices to keep in mind when including headings:

Stick to the numerical order

Tags should be used in descending order. 

Make use of a question sentence

This format will improve your chances of ranking in search engines. 

Include keyword phrases

Include the primary and secondary keywords in headings to improve rankings.

Link internally to valuable resources

Internal links are hyperlinks that take visitors to pages or posts on the same website. Internal links are categorized into two types: 

• Navigational links 
• Contextual links

Internal navigational links generally contain the main structure of the website. They assist users in finding the page they are looking for. Internal navigation links include those in the navigation bar, sidebar, and footer.

Meanwhile, internal contextual links are embedded throughout the content. On a product page, for instance, the description contains internal links to the webpage that describe the features in full depth.

Internal linking in blog posts is another practice that directs users to related topics.

Both navigational and contextual internal links, help with the site’s SEO. 

Here are a few SEO strategies for internal linking:

• Create topic clusters by identifying the hub pages.
• Determine the authoritative pages of the website.
• For internal link anchor texts, use natural language.

Here is a guide to do’s and dont’s in internal linking.

External links

External links to other websites, in addition to linking to your own content, benefit both readers and search engines. They help users to delve deeper into a topic, which is especially useful if your site does not already have resources on the subject.

Some WordPress SEO pointers for including external links:

• Avoid links with paywalls. Visitors should be able to access the content you’re linking to without having to subscribe or sign up.
• Open each of the links in a new tab. As a result, readers can switch between your site and the external link.
• Contact the website’s owner. Tell them that your website included links to their content and ask if they would mind if you removed them.
• Examine the date it was published or last modified. Do not link to content that is more than two years old, as the information will most likely be out of date.
• Internal links should be prioritized. First, review your content and only link to information that visitors cannot locate on your webpage.

Eliminate low-value content from indexing

Neither search engines nor visitors find low-value content valuable. Avoiding irrelevant content from being indexed by search engines will help you maintain your reliability.

When content fails to deliver a straightforward answer to a query, it is considered low-value. A few examples of low-value content include the following posts and pages:

• Archived and category pages
• Content of poor quality
• Marketing and user-generated content

You can conduct an audit on your site using tools to identify low-value content. Add the no-index tag to pages that target low-priority keywords and have low rankings and traffic.

Remember to only use no index tags on low-value content. Using a no-index tag on canonical or redundant pages may cause WordPress and search engines to become confused.

Optimize the images with the alt text

Images assist in attracting the audience’s interest and reaffirming the ideas you would like to convey. They may, however, consume a lot of resources and bring your site down.

Image optimization can enhance your site’s page load time and accessibility, which might enhance rankings on SERPs.

Let’s go over three methods for image optimization.

Image Compression

Compressing images will reduce the file size of your images and maintain your site lightweight.

You must select between lossy and lossless image compression. The best option will be based on the kind of images you use on your website.

Use lossy compression for JPEG files with very few details. In the meantime, lossless is better suited for PNG images with a substantial amount of text.

Insert Alt Text for Pictures

Alt text (alternative text) improves the accessibility of your images. They describe how images appear to search engines. Alt text is used by screen readers to assist visually impaired users in perceiving what pictures convey.

WordPress includes tools for adding alt text to images. It can be assigned by users through the media library and the block editor.

Here are some alt-text best practices for WordPress SEO:

• Define the image precisely.
• Be brief with it.
• When needed, add keywords.
• Keep up the sentence structure.

 Name the images with readable file names

File names can also assist search engines in comprehending visual content. In fact, pictures with comprehensible file names are more likely to be recommended by search engines.

When creating readable image file names, keep the following in mind:

• Structure that is concise and descriptive
• Keywords should be included.

Include video

Videos are a powerful marketing tool for engaging your target audience.

In recent years, video content has become one of the biggest information sources for internet users.

You can share videos on online streaming sites like YouTube and Vimeo, as well as on social media and your WordPress site.

Having video content for your company can boost conversions.

Here are some pointers for creating effective video content:

• Make a video out of the written material. Whether it’s a recent article or a landing page, some people will want to watch it in video form.
• Place the video on the appropriate page. Upload the clip to YouTube and embed it in the WordPress site to increase visibility while avoiding resource consumption in excess.
• Create videos that are search engine friendly. Optimized videos may appear in Google search results under the videos tab. Provide more video information, such as the title, description, and thumbnail.

Deploy Technical WordPress SEO

Technical SEO enhances the search efficiency of a WordPress website behind the scenes by modifying code, file management details, and speed issues. Because of the numerous challenges involved, WordPress beginners and seasoned pros alike depend heavily on SEO tools to oversee technical SEO necessities instead of making adjustments to codes.

SEO-friendly URL

SEO-friendly URLs demonstrate the perspective of your content to both visitors and search engines.

SEO-friendly URLs influence the ranking factors, which means they increase the likelihood of your website ranking higher in search results. The most effective way of making your URLs search engine friendly is to include your keywords in them.

An example of an SEO-friendly URL structure is

https://www.sample.com/blog/how-to-get-started-with-wordpress-SEO

Use sitemaps

An XML sitemap is a folder of code that contains a list of all the web pages on your web server.

A sitemap directs your visitors to where they would like to go. The primary purpose of an XML sitemap is to enable search engines to explore and detect your website’s pages, resulting in a higher SEO Score.

Unless you have extensive coding knowledge and want to manually create your XML sitemap, the most convenient option is to install an SEO plugin.

Address crawling and indexing matters

The first step in having a search engine recognize and display your web pages in the search result is crawling.

Crawling is the process by which search engines dispatch robots to search the web for fresh and modified content. Search engine spiders retrieve these website pages and then crawl the links on those pages in order to discover new URLs on a website and throughout the Internet.

The following are examples of widely known technical SEO crawling issues:

• robots.txt file blocks the URLs
• Canonical URLs that are inaccurate
• Orphan pages with no internal links
• Server error and not found error

Indexing is the process by which a search engine includes web content in its index in order for it to be retrieved and served to users searching for a specific query.

The following are examples of widely known technical SEO indexing issues:

• Robots.txt blocks web pages
• Identified as noindex
• Redirected to a different URL
• No canonical URL.
• Content duplication
• Content that is too thin or of poor quality

Employ SSL

Another thing to consider from a technical SEO plan is whether or not your web page is safe.

Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and so on will prioritize HTTPS-enabled sites over HTTP-enabled sites. You require an SSL certificate to encrypt the link between your web server and the user’s browser in order to protect your site.

You can verify this by having a look for the padlock symbol in the top search bar of your browser.

Most WordPress hosting providers now include free SSL with all of their plans. You can inquire with your provider to see if they offer this service.

Check for identical versions of your URL

It is essential that only one version of your website is indexed by Google and other search engines.

Your website may have multiple versions, but they should all point to the same version. For instance, you could have a webpage with www and non-www versions, or HTTP and HTTPS versions.

Regardless of whether you use a www or non-www version, all URLs should point to the principal WordPress URL. Otherwise, search engines will treat each version as a separate website.

This may have a negative effect on your general SEO rankings. Search engines will be unsure which version to index, potentially resulting in duplicate content issues.

Fix broken links

Broken links are harmful to your website’s SEO framework and have a negative effect on user experience. These are dead links that will result in a 404 error.

As search engine crawlers navigate your webpage by pursuing internal links. A broken link can prevent them from finding new content. As a result, your page may not appear in search results.

Likewise, if a guest opens a link but is unable to find the page they seek, they may leave your website.

Mobile-friendly website

The process of delivering website content so that people can easily access the site from mobile devices is referred to as mobile optimization. A responsive design, good site layout, and fast page speed are all characteristics of a mobile-friendly website.

Search engine primarily employs mobile-first indexing and recently implemented a mobile-friendly update that is now turned into its algorithm, boosting the ranking of mobile-friendly pages in mobile search results.

As a result, mobile optimization is an essential component of any good technical SEO strategy.

The following are examples of common mobile optimization issues:

• Design that is not responsive
• Slow site speed due to a lack of mobile viewport specification in the HTML
• Interstitials like pop-up ads and newsletter sign-ups intervene
• 404 errors on mobile devices
• Files that are blocked
• Adverse redirects
• Unwatchable content 

Improve website speed and performance

The speed of your website is also an essential element of your WordPress technical SEO framework. The search engine uses page load speed as a ranking factor, and fast-loading webpages will rank higher than slower sites.

A website performance test can be used to determine the load time of a website.

Minifying your CSS and JavaScript files is a quick way to improve the speed of your website.

Minification refers to the process of decreasing the size of website files by stripping away white spaces, lines, and unnecessary characters. When a user visits your website, various files, including CSS, HTML, and JavaScript, are sent to the user’s browser.

You can greatly enhance website loading time and efficiency by reducing file size. There are numerous WordPress plugins and hosting services available.

Use schema markup

Schema markup is the next technical SEO methodology you should evaluate. It assists search engines in better understanding your content and the way it will show up in search results.

Schema markup is appropriate for recipes, customer feedback, events, FAQs, blogs, category pages, multiple locations for local businesses, and other purposes.

Search engines may employ this data to deliver relevant results. It also aids in the capture of Google-featured snippets, which can lead to an increase in organic clicks and traffic.

Ensure the search engine is not flagging your site for malware

One more key technical SEO checklist component is to ensure that your site has not been blacklisted by Googlacke as having malware or unwanted software.

If Google determines that your website poses a security risk to users, it will display the warning message:

This can be disastrous for your WordPress SEO. It will discourage individuals from checking out your website, and affect your SEO rankings and general website traffic.

Explore Off-Page WordPress SEO

Use your social media presence

Although social media platforms are not a direct ranking factor for WordPress SEO, they can help your strategic plan in several ways:

• Improves content performance and aids in the acquisition of backlinks
• Improves brand recognition.
• Enhances audience participation.

However, using social media for SEO takes planning and preparation. To get you started, here are some suggested social media strategies:

Improve your profile. Include useful information about your website. Include some industry-related keywords to boost the ranking of your social media profile page.

Share content on a regular basis. Use eye-catching captions and pictures to entice readers to read your blog posts.

Configure a social media plugin for WordPress. Readers can easily start sharing your articles on their social media profiles thanks to plugins. 

A few social media plugins showcase a page’s share count to demonstrate the popularity of a post.

Engage your audience. Use polls, surveys, Q and A sessions, and personalized hashtags to encourage participation.

Gain unlinked mentions

A few web pages may mention your company but do not link to it. These are known as unlinked mentions.

Unlinked mentions do not have hyperlinks, unlike nofollow external links, which prevent search engines from crawling them. 

This is why unlinked mentions should be part of your link-building strategy. Link building is an SEO strategy for obtaining backlinks or inbound links from other web pages that point to any page on your website. These backlinks will increase the authority and position of your page rank.

Benefit from Dofollow links

Another effective link-building strategy is the creation of dofollow links.

Dofollow links allow Google crawlers to follow the links that lead to your website, resulting in link juice. When adding a link to any text, most content editors use dofollow by default.

Because these links are located on different websites, there isn’t much you can do to customize them to your liking. Fortunately, there are several methods for obtaining inbound links from other websites:

Restore any broken links. If you come across a broken link on some other website, this is an awesome chance to provide your own as a replacement. Inform the owner of the website about the broken link. Then, explain why it is preferable to substitute the broken link with one of your pages.

Publish guest post

Another off-page method to improve WordPress SEO is to write guest posts. This involves producing high-quality content for several other web pages that link to yours.

Guest blogging can help your WordPress site in two ways. You can increase the authority of your site by building backlinks. You can pass link juice to your website by writing guest posts for high-authority websites.

You can boost the number of times your brand is mentioned online. You get the opportunity to mention your brand in the content as a guest blogger. Even if the mentions aren’t linked to your website, Google considers them valuable.

How to improve SEO on WordPress? – Quick Tips

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are links that display the location of visitors and improve the user experience and navigation of a website. It is incredibly beneficial for websites with a lot of webpage and blog posts.

Google also shows breadcrumbs rather than a page’s URL in SERPs. This allows users to determine whether the page is in the correct location or category on the website.

Show visitors your ‘last updated’

Allowing visitors to see your last updated date on WordPress posts can lead to an increase in clicks. 

Although the date of publication of a blog post has no effect on a website’s search engine ranking, it is still available in Google search results.

The last updated date of a post drives guests’ decision to click on a site. This is due to the fact that people desire material that includes the most up-to-date data.

Approve blog comments manually

Junk comments frequently contain redirects to harmful websites that can affect your search engine ranking. Allowing manual comment approval will aid ensure the safety of your WordPress website’s reputation.

Examine every comment to avoid getting unsolicited messages on your website.

The wrap

That’s it! You have reached the last section of our WordPress SEO guide.

In this WordPress SEO guide, we have covered the SEO plugins, WordPress SEO basics, and techniques to improve your website.

Websites with quality WordPress SEO surpass the competitions on the search engine ranking. It entails a variety of tasks, ranging from on-page optimization, such as improving user experience and producing valuable content, to off-page optimization. As a result, knowing the WordPress SEO basics can simplify a number of SEO tasks.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is WordPress good for SEO?

WordPress is adaptable. Plugins provide an unlimited number of possibilities for adding additional functionality to websites. Unlike many other website builders, WordPress does not have to master every possible functionality and instead relies on third parties to create plugins that specialize in whatever functionality their plugins provide. This also increases competition, which means you might have multiple options for which plugin to use.

As a result, there are numerous great SEO plugins available to assist you in accomplishing everything necessary to fully optimize your website.

How to apply WordPress SEO on my website?

WordPress SEO is divided into three categories: on-page SEO, technical SEO, and off-page SEO. As you create content, it’s simple to start with on-page SEO techniques, then smoothen technical SEO specifics, and finally include off-page SEO to your day-to-day SEO checklist.

Why is SEO important for WordPress websites?

Search engine optimization is one of the most influential marketing techniques. Ranking high on search engine results will increase website traffic, create your authority in the business, and improve the usability of your site.

What are some important on-page SEO elements for WordPress websites?

To drive organic search traffic to your website, you must prioritize on-page SEO.

Some essential on-page SEO components for WordPress websites are as follows:

• Craft SEO-friendly and quality content
• Avoid cannibalization
• Optimize images
• Eliminate low-value content indexing
• Use heading tags
• Compelling meta description and meta title

What are some important off-page SEO elements for WordPress websites?

Off-page WordPress SEO is all about obtaining links from other websites, blogs, and social media platforms in order to improve rankings.

Some essential off-page SEO components for WordPress websites are as follows:

• Use your social media presence
• Gain unlinked mentions
• Dofollow links
• Publish guest posts

What are some popular WordPress SEO plugins?

Some popular WordPress SEO plugins are:

• YOAST SEO
• Rank Math
• Slim SEO 
• WordLift
• Redirection
• Broken link checker

Can I do WordPress SEO on my own, or do I need to hire an SEO expert?

WordPress SEO is a lengthy process that needs perseverance. It can take a long time to complete all of the tasks on your checklist. You can employ an expert to drive traffic to your website instead of doing it yourself. A WordPress Seo consultant will assist you in evaluating your website and implementing the changes that are needed.