Getting WordPress installed and a theme customized is not the end of the road when it comes to WordPress SEO. Yes, WordPress has things automatically integrated that will help with search engine optimization such as categories and tags (which you really need to use by the way), but there are many additional things that can be done.
One of my favorite plugins that I always add on sites that I build for clients is the All in One SEO plugin. This allows you to add meta info for your homepage such as site title, description, and keywords. You can also check the option to use categories and tags as keywords and you can go even further by adding meta info to every page on your WordPress website.
I am currently working with a client who is interested in getting her site ranked higher in the search engines and she has asked for some advice on how she can do that. I decided to do some research in preparation for our phone consult and I found a great article by www.sitesketch101.com called “The 15 Best SEO Tips for WordPress in 2011”. The writer shared some awesome ideas and I just had to share them with you as well. I chose 12 out of the 15 tips.
- Use an SEO Plugin
- Add Fresh New Content on a Regular Basis – this is pretty self explanatory. Add content that will engage the reader and keep them on your site longer and maybe even click through your site to other pages or posts.
- Link out to Relevant / Informative Content – this is what I am doing here by linking to the article that has these awesome seo tips for WordPress
- Use Keywords Throughout Your Articles – keyword refers to the word or phrase that you hope will be listed on a search engine. So, for example, I would like to be listed under “WordPress SEO”, so I need to try to use variations of that term or phrase within this post.
- Use Keywords in the Post Title
- Optimize Your URL Structure / Permalinks – I automatically set the permalink structure to “/%postname%/” when building a site. You should never change this if you already have an established site. That can screw things up big time if you don’t know what you are doing. But for a new WordPress site, it is very important to set the permalink structure BEFORE you do anything else.
- Optimize Images In Posts – Add image titles and alt text that describes both the image and the content of the article.
- Provide a Google Sitemap – Google likes it when you provide them with an easy-to-read overview of all the pages on your site. The easiest and most effective way to deliver this much needed SEO tool is to simply install the WordPress plugin called Google XML Sitemaps. This plugin will do all the hard work for you and automatically update every time you add new posts to your site.
- Interlink Keywords Between Articles – Link to one of your old posts within a new post. This increases the page views on your site and encourages people to read other articles of yours.
- Cache Your Site Content – WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache are WordPress plugins that allow a generated page to be stored as a real static page so that the next person to view it doesn’t have to wait for it to be created. This drastically reduces the time it takes a viewer to see your pages and increases the possibility of keeping more readers. This means that your content will always be lightning fast.
- Recycle Old Posts and Revive Old Permalinks – The art of recycling an old post simply means that you take an article that was previously published, let’s say five or six months ago, and add new life and excitement to it and republishing it. If you want to keep growing the ranking authority of your most powerful articles from last year then be sure to leave the permalink alone. This allows you to bring in a fresh wave of links to a page that already ranks in Google.
- Link to Related Posts: Install WordPress Related Posts Plugin which adds 4 or 5 similar posts at the bottom of each your posts. This is a great way to guide your readers to more of your articles on similar topics and it’s a terrific way to guide search engines around your site.
I hope these tips will help you to take your WordPress site to the next level. The last thing you want to do is to spend money on having a custom WordPress site designed and not take advantage of some of the simple things that can be done to help boost your site’s seo optimization status.
If you are currently using WordPress and you are not sure if you are doing everything you need to do for your site’s SEO, then feel free to Contact Me Today so that I can help you get your site to where it needs to be.
