Top 10 SEO tips for WordPress websites
Here are 10 simple WordPress SEO tips to get noticed online and stand out from the crowd.
To get high-class performance for your Wordpress website, you need to improve the volume of quality traffic to your website from search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. This can be done through organic or algorithmic search results in search engines. The trick is to drive traffic towards your website and this can be achieved when your site appears in the search results list.
SEO services come into the picture here and the company can target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and so on. In order to optimise your website, the WordPress SEO tips given below should be followed judiciously for far-reaching results.
1. Content is the best optimisation
You can optimise your website by using the right choice of words and writing about what is currently trending. This means there has to be an effective combination of high-quality terms and unique content. Ideally, the text should contain keywords that will become the highlight of the overall theme of the post. The content should be simple and legible for visitors who visit your website.
2. Exchange backlinks
You may want to link your website with other relevant websites that relate to your topic but you need to link only with websites that have high page ranking. To make the most of SEO services, you can also link between pages within your website, only if it’s relevant. It is not advisable to link every page to each other as this may disperse the traffic rather than attracting.
3. Give catchy names to your image files
Images are drawn by Google by calculating the ranking. When you search for a particular SEO term, Google displays both text and images on its search results page, illustrating relevant images contained in the web page or post that further link to the corresponding page. If you implement keywords of a specific subject in your file name and use the alt tag and title tag for your images, then directing the visitor to your website becomes easier.
4. Short permalinks and keywords enhance visibility
Using a coherent permalink for example instead of http://yourwebsite.com/page-id?495/, use http://yourwebsite.com/virat-kohli-india/. Google takes only the first four words in a permalink into consideration. Any succeeding words in your permalinks are considered irrelevant.
5. Use search engine augmented themes
Some themes use a lot of coding to create the layout and design but this will only lessen the content and keyword density. Google drudges through the source code to locate the relevant content. A fast performing theme proves good for your Google ranking, as the ranking is determined on the performance of your website.
6. Create a sitemap in XML format
Wordpress search engine optimisation can be achieved with WordPress and plugins like Google XML Sitemaps too. This WordPress SEO tip specifically is important because Google has a variety of other useful tools like Website Optimizer and Webmaster Central.
Highlight informative content or keywords on your website. Use h1-h6 to define HTML headings or subtitles of an article or relevant phrases. Using a strong tag will definitely be an added advantage but overdoing it might cause discrepancies.
7. Tag your posts to social networks.
Tagging or adding your website to social networks will add value and bring back the traffic to your website. You may also like to promote other posts and websites that you have liked, as they may also reciprocate and link back to you.
8. Don’t use black hat techniques or mirror HTML sites.
Black hat techniques are against search engine guidelines and are considered unethical and don't help much with visitors. Black hat or mirror HTML sites use keyword stuffing, cloaking, and using private link networks which is punishable by the offense.
9. Don’t use Flash.
Flash is virtually invisible to search engines, therefore, using WordPress is a safe bet. For a quick and easy way to optimise your page ranking in a Wordpress website, download and install an SEO plugin, like the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast.
10. Last but not least, don’t push too hard.
Your concentration has to be more on publishing unique, relevant and quality content. If this is in place, then everything else will also fall into place.
The above Wordpress SEO tips are here to make your work easier to drive more traffic to your website in the best possible way. This list goes on, but what you need to understand is that there are over 200 criteria, but Google ranks you by determining lesser-known criteria such as the age of the domain, duplicate content, meta description, and tags.