WordPress is one of the most popular content management systems, and offers an easy way to build a website or blog. Once you’ve settled on WordPress for your site, you’ll want to optimise it properly for search engine rankings. Here are some easy tips for WordPress SEO.
Use a specialist WordPress SEO agency. The easiest way to be sure you’re nailing your SEO is to bring in the experts. A specialist agency will know all the tricks to improve your rankings, and will be up to speed with the every changing algorithms and ranking factors, saving you a lot of the leg work trying to keep up with a fast moving industry.
Check your site speed. Page loading times are an important part of improving your site. Not only does it make the site better to use for site visitors, it reduces bounce rate by not putting people off as soon as they reach the site, and Google factors it into your search rankings. Choose a reliable host to avoid slow servers, and slim down anything bloating your pages.
Don’t let Google index your site until you’re ready. If you’re in the process of starting up a WordPress site, you’re probably making a lot of changes which can result in 404 errors and other issues that damage your search ranking. In the back end of WordPress, you’ll find an option that disallows search engines from indexing your site. Tick that option, and mess around with your site to your heart’s content with upsetting the search engines. When you’re done, uncheck the option, and your site will start to be indexed again.
Install an .xml sitemap plugin. These plugins are vital for WordPress, as they give search engines links to all your pages, allowing them to index your site much faster, getting you ranking quickly.
Install an SEO plugin. A good SEO plugin can do a lot of your SEO tasks automatically for you. You can use the plugin to correctly manage, or remind you to manage page titles, meta descriptions, keyword optimisation, categories, tags and indexing.
Block spam comments. There are lots of great tools to block spam, so make sure you’re using one. Spam comments can cause problems, as they contribute nothing useful and annoy users. If they’re sharing bad links, this can impact your rankings, as the search engines will think you’re sharing dodgy content. Search engines will also penalize your content for spam comments with questionable keywords. Handle spam quickly and remove it, to avoid being punished by Google for somebody else’s spam.
Use internal links. When you’re creating new content, link to older content that is relevant to your current subject. This is not only useful for your readers, but is great for search rankings. Internal links keep people moving around your site, which tells the search engines that your content is useful and your site is worth staying on. It also helps Google to find and rank more pages on your site, improving your overall rankings.
