Good standing in search engines like Google is crucial for getting more traffic to your website. If you have developed your website in WordPress, then this guideline will be very useful for you. This step by step guide will explain to you the ways to improve SEO positioning of WordPress sites.
WordPress is the CMS that powers over one third of the Internet.
Most of the WordPress SEO positioning guides are too technical for those who are just starting out.
If you really want to increase your website traffic, then search for a skilled SEO expert.
Or, you can take a tour of the best tips that will help you get that much desired organic traffic.
One of the big reasons why experts recommend WordPress for creating websites, is because it is SEO friendly.
WordPress makes sure that the code it generates follows SEO best practices.
Nevertheless, there is much more you should do if you want to maximize your efforts to achieve good web positioning.
Optimizing a WordPress website for SEO can seem daunting at first.
This is specially the case if you do not have a lot of technical knowledge about SEO.
In the decade of 2020, it is not that complex to rank a website. But, on the same time, it is not that simple either.
Good news is that you can start by learning certain basic SEO concepts to apply to your website.
And if you can’t perform it yourself, then an experienced IT Services firm can join hands to rank your website well in search engines.
What does SEO mean?
SEO is an acronym that stands for search engine optimization. These are a series of strategies that position a website among the first results of a search engine like Google.
The idea is not to guess the search engine algorithms and thus try to deceive these for better search rankings.
Pursue to make the website user friendly, easily accessible and answer search intent.
Following these points and conforming to other search engine guidelines can boost chances of a website to be ranked well by search engines.
Your website must have good user experience, and you should write content about what people search for.
So, now if you optimize your website, then it will appear on search engines in better positions.
Why having a good SEO strategy is important?
Just imagine how much complicated life can be without search engines.
We would have to go with great guides or indexes, and will have to constantly update them for latest results.
Search engines are one of the largest sources of traffic for websites. And what is cherry on top—it is free.
Google and other search engines use sophisticated and constantly updated algorithms to properly understand and rank pages in search results.
But these search algorithms are not perfect, and they still need your help to understand what your content is all about.
For this reason, if you do not optimize your content, then search engines will not know how to properly rank it.
People look for content similar to what you write, but the search engines have not indexed your website or contribution.
Then you loose that valuable organic traffic, and it directly goes to your competition. How dreadful? A total nightmare.
SEO Factors for WordPress Websites
Although it has a certain technical level, but SEO positioning of WordPress sites it is not totally as such.
Learning few basic tips and knowing how to apply them to optimize a website can potentially boost organic traffic.
You only need to have a WordPress website and the rest is very simple.
These are some major aspects that can boost SEO of websites crafted in WordPress CMS.
- Make a Website visible to Search Engines
- Use SEO friendly URLs to boost Search Rankings
- Choose good WordPress SEO plugin
Let’s discuss these points in detail now.
Make a Website visible to Search Engines
WordPress comes with a built-in choice to hide your website from the search engines.
The purpose of this option is to allow you to configure and work on the website before it is open for the general public.
However, it may happen that the choice may accidentally remain checked after website launch.
In this case, you are preventing search engines from indexing your website.
If for some reason you do not find your website crawled, verify that you have not selected this option.
Use SEO friendly URLs to boost Search Rankings
The URL is the address that accesses your website and its contents.
SEO-friendly URLs contain words that clearly explain the page content, and are easy to read for both humans and search engines.
Choose good WordPress SEO plugin
The most interesting thing about WordPress is its ability to expand its functionality through plugins.
As of June 2020, WordPress has around 57000 plugins and counting.
It is easy to overwhelm in that tide of information.
Especially if you are just starting out on website creation journey.
Choose a single SEO plugin for WordPress that supports many features.
This will save you from the hassle of performing manual tasks to improve SEO positioning of WordPress sites.
You will also avoid the need of installing different plugins for each function related to SEO.
For many website owners, Yoast SEO is top choice in SEO plugins for WordPress. 5+ million active installations is an undeniable proof.
With 2+ million current installations, the All in one SEO Pack is the second option for SEO plugin.
There are some other contenders also in SEO plugins.
The brainchild of Yoast BV has best rank and five star ratings in SEO plugins for a reason.
So, it is the SEO plugin that we will use in the examples in this guide.
Advantages of implementing SEO strategy
If you can do it yourself, then promote your website at your own pace.
The best practice you can undertake is to hire SEO company that can help you increase the organic traffic.
Applying a good SEO approach has several rewards that are given below.
- Increasing the visibility of brand
- Attracting qualified traffic
- Generating sales opportunities
- Positioning a brand as authority in market
- Educating the audience
- Wining over the competition
- Earning better return on investment
Let’s explore these plus points of SEO strategy in depth.
Increasing the visibility of brand
Implementing an SEO strategy is one of the best ways to increase the visibility of your brand organically.
Imagine the following scenario.
Your business deals with the sale of washing machines. One user, let’s call him Pedro, is having trouble with his washing machine. So, he goes through Google to find out how he can fix it himself.
Coincidentally, you have an article that shows a step by step guide to repairing washing machines. So, there is great chance that you will appear in search results. Hence, it is highly likely that Pedro will visit your website for more information.
Although the article talks about repair and not sale. This is just the beginning of a customer relationship with your brand. It is what in inbound marketing we know as the attraction stage.
Attracting qualified traffic
Like Pedro, many other users will come to your content to clear their doubts, and find solutions to their problems.
Optimize the users targeted valuable content for search engines.
So, your website will organically attract the leads you are looking for, at the right time.
In this way, the more visits you receive, the more people will interact with your website.
Hence more likely you are to close a sale, which moves us to the next phase in inbound practice.
Generating sales opportunities
Imagine that, although Pedro repaired his washing machine, he definitely needs to change it, since he still has other faults in it.
Pedro already knows your brand, thanks to the fact that he has found the solution to his questions in your content.
So, he will surely already trust your business and think of you, as the first option, to buy his next washing machine.
This is the decision stage in the inbound methodology.
Positioning a brand as authority in market
Continuing with our example, in Pedro’s mind and in that of many other users like him, your company will occupy their Top of Mind, in essence.
Therefore, it will be the first brand that comes to mind when they think of washing machines.
SEO allows you to achieve this by facilitating correct indexing and improving the organic positioning of your content.
So, whenever Pedro or anyone else searches for information on washing machines, your website will be the first to appear, or at least, the result they are looking for.
In this area, “EAT” is another important concept. An acronym for “Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness”, it represents the three fundamental elements of quality content.
Google has recently favorably started viewing content published by authors who have technical authority and credibility, and are recognized in the respective field.
For example, on a disease content website, you want to have articles written by doctors, with an author page that contains information about your professional history.
Educating the audience
You have surely educated users like Pedro with your articles on the operation, care and maintenance of their washing machines.
They have also managed to understand what the specifications they are looking for with their washing machine, according to their personal needs.
As you can see, the importance of positioning a content lies not only in closing sales, but also in educating the audience to make better decisions.
Wining over the competition
Finally, if it is your brand that produces the most complete and relevant washing machine content.
Who do you think users will look for when they want to know something about washing machines?
Which brand will they trust if they need to make a purchase?
Yes, it takes time and a lot of work to implement an SEO strategy.
But, in the long term, it generates constant and lasting results.
Earning better return on investment
SEO requires a much lower investment than other strategies such as SEM or traditional advertising.
The investment required for SEO translates into the payment of some tools such as those we saw earlier. This also involves the wages of the SEO specialist and the content creator.
Cost of the domain and hosting fee of the website is also a related expanse.
So, the return more than multiplies the investment.
The best thing is that the work once performed continues to generate returns in the medium and long term.
Conclusion
We have explained the complete procedure for SEO positioning of WordPress sites gradually.
The vital SEO concepts and strategies can assist your brand to reach the top places in Google and other search engines.
If you are creating a new website, then keeping in view the SEO guidelines will help it in achieving good place in search engines including Google.
Similarly, if you redesign a website according to SEO strategies, then its search ranking will enhance.
Do you like to develop a website, or want to revamp it, with consideration to SEO tips?
Techliance can help you in this website development and promotion task. Contact us today.
