Top Six Steps to Ultimate WordPress SEO
If you’re currently getting your first WordPress blog all set up and you’ve already got the design and the first few pages of content established then you are probably now thinking about taking your first foray into the weird world of Search Engine Optimisation. Luckily there are a number of steps you can take that help you easily tweak WordPress to optimize it for those search engines. If you follow these steps you will both clean up the code and appearance of your blog as well as setting it up to be perfectly designed for the search engine results. This article will lay out the six most common and most useful steps to take to boost your WordPress blog’s attraction:
Plan and Research those Keywords Before You Do Anything Else
This is crucial. A lot of people jump into their blogs without putting too much thought into them. If you take an extra day to spend some time doing keyword research it will pay dividends later. Look out for keywords that have high search results but don’t seem to be too competitive with the larger sites or sites similar to yours. Focus your efforts on achievable keywords to use in your WordPress Blog.
Get Those Permalinks Working
Within WordPress you are able to get your blog links to appear exactly as you would want them to appear. To do this you simply go to your WordPress admin area and choose Settings then choose Permalinks. From there you can either select one of the prescribed options or you can go for a custom option which lets you design your links to appear according to your custom structure. Select this option and then type in /%postname%/ – this makes your blog show all the links as ttp://yourdomain.com/the-name-of-your-post/ – the purest and most search enigine friendly way display permalinks.
Put a Bit of Effort into Meta Descriptions
Just because Google no longe ruses them doesn’t mean they aren’t worth the effort. Everyone knows they need to concentrate on Keyword Tags and Title Tags but it is still important that you work on your Meta Description. It should be a succinct and well constructed summary of the content on your pages and must not promise anything it won’t be able to deliver. Other search engines still use the description so it should also be compelling and make the reader want to click through to your site.
Don’t Forget to Optimize those Images As Well
One of the advantages of the WordPress system is that it also makes optimizing images a piece of cake so you might as well do it. In order to do it right, any images that are to be used in a post need the right ‘alt’ and ‘title’ tags. By doing this the search engines can read exactly what the image is supposed to be representing. To make it even easier you can download a simple plugin that will optimize all of the images at a far quicker and easier rate.
Make Certain You Have Optimized those Headings in the Right Way
It is crucial that for the post title you only employ the h1 tag. In the actual post you are able to use the h2 and h3 tags to make other headings. If you ensure that your headings are laid out correctly you make certain that the search engines will correctly index your pages and organize your information properly.
Take the Time to Generate A Sitemap
Search engines love XML sitemaps which help them with a list of all the pages and posts on your site and help to explain the structure of your blog. Setting up a well organized sitemap will enhance your site in the eyes of the search engine. There are all kinds of free plugins you can use to do this, some of which will also ping the search engines every time you update your blog.
Alex is a journalist and financial blogger. He currently writes for the contracting sector about contractor mortgages and umbrella companies