Beginners Guide to SEO for WordPress

WordPress SEO 101: How to Optimize Your WordPress-Hosted Website for Search

How to Go Beyond WordPress SEO to Truly Optimise Your Website

To have a site on WordPress, two broad steps are required:

1. Developing the site- This requires deciding on the basic content and design and then setting up the site. Content and design require some work, but it is straightforward as it depends on what the website is about. Setting up the website, though a technical task, is also straightforward, as simple and specific given steps must be followed to have the website running.
2. Proper Search Engine Optimization- This is a significant step because this is what ensures that a site is being viewed and put to use as much as possible. This, however, is not such a straightforward task and requires some knowledge, tips, and practice.

This article will familiarize you with the key knowledge and tips required for effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of a site, to make the site is successful.

WordPress itself does provide some basic and satisfactory SEO services. However, the following two reasons should be convincing enough to learn the process and go beyond what WordPress provides:

1. The SEO provided by WordPress is basic and though satisfactory, if there is a possibility of improvement, then why not improve?
2. There may be several competing sites on the internet, and to be able to outshine them, why not put in the little effort that can make a lot of difference?

Further, SEO may sound too technical, particularly for those who are not tech-savvy, but it is not. The tactics are simple enough. It is worth the effort, as it improves the positioning of the site in search results, increasing its viewership. Take the first step today and read this article and don’t stop there. Enroll in our Digital Marketing Program and become a pro in digital marketing.

SEO: In Brief

Search Engine Optimization, as the name suggests, is the mechanism by which a site is ‘optimized’ for search engines. It simply means that the content is tweaked to come on the top when searched using search engine giants like Google, Yahoo, AskJeeves and Bing.

A search process is as follows –

• We identify what we want to search for on the internet and decide on keywords most related to it.
• We choose the search engine we want to use, open its site and enter the keywords for search.
• The search engine then presents a long list of search results, in the form of website URLs for web pages, videos, images, local listings, scholarly articles, etc.

This list of primary search results is sorted by the search engine according to relevance, starting from those that match most closely with the keywords search, and among that, those that are most popular and often used.

This is the process by which most websites are accessed and used, other than specifically searching for a particular site. It is thus, most advantageous for websites to feature on as many relevant search results as possible, and as high up in the list as possible. The most economical way to achieve this naturally and in a sustainable method would be to fine-tune the content so that it is frequently recognized by search engines.

This is the job that SEO performs. It makes some ‘editorial’ changes to the content of sites, ensuring that the words and phrases used are easy for search engines to pick up frequently.

Significance and Advantages of SEO

• Some psychological studies and researches based on the searching behavior of internet users have shown that the probability of the first five search results catches the attention of the searchers. This implies that you need to try and make sure that your site URL features in this top list to maximize its popularity and use.
• Users trust search engines of their choice and greatly depend on their results, rather than using their judgment about the quality of a site. The general feel, which may also often be true, is that the topmost results are of those sites that have trust-worthy content of best quality. Hence if SEO results in your site appearing among the top, it will increase the acceptability of your content and add to your business.
• Through some basic changes, without compromising on content or cost, maximum keywords can be included such that your site not only appears towards the top of search results but also that it features on several such search results, irrespective of what exact search word a user uses, as long as it is related to what the website is about. This can greatly expand the user-base of the site, increasing its traffic and hence your business.
• Increased traffic to your site can also attract more paid advertisements, hence providing an extra source of income.
• SEO process utilizes the knowledge about the general public and possible customers, their inclinations and preferences. Hence, SEO tools help to customize your content to make it more readily understandable, using familiar phrases, thus improving website usability and hence user experience. Such satisfied visitors to your site may spread the word about it, hence popularizing your work through their word-of-mouth.
• Such users, who may have reached your site through a search engine, may even promote it on their social media accounts such as Facebook and Instagram. That is why it is advised to have sharing buttons on your pages. Hence, SEO can also aid in promoting your site or blog on social media platforms.
• If your site is large, with numerous pages and posts, and multiple authors, SEO can be used to make the content more accessible and uniform across. You may link two related posts within your site, making it easier for users to find relevant content. Authors may have different writing styles, but, subjecting the content through SEO will balance out these differences, replacing some phrases with more commonly used ones.
• Your website may be addressing something the same as, or very similar to, another site, making that one your competitor! To beat the competition, SEO can take you a long way, simply by making your work more visible and accessible.
• Among the steps of the SEO process, there is also a stage that helps in the suitable promotion of the site. Hence, even those who do not understand all marketing strategies can use this tool to effectively promote their work. SEO is an add-on tool, as a part of your overall internet marketing strategy which may include aspects like social media promotion, content strategy, etc.

Steps of SEO Process: Three main stages

SEO is a dynamic process, with a clear framework and rules. Hence, once you are familiar with the rules and framework, it will be easy to carry out the process. It is possible to subject your content through multiple iterations, improving the content each time. The different stages of SEO are –

• Technical SEO: This ensures that a search engine can easily scan through your site and index it for use.
• On-site SEO: This is the set of rules, which when applied to the content and site-structure, increases its likelihood of being recognized by search engines.
• Off-site SEO: This is a tool to promote your site, again increasing its chances of appearing high on search lists.

WordPress SEO and its Specifics

Out of the box, WordPress- This is a content management system (CMS) and it is well optimized. This develops the ideal groundwork for your site. Once this is done, you may slowly build upon it, as you progress, and it may not be necessary to invest in detailed customization, plugins or even theme optimization.

However, all that is possible only if the foundation, the basics are strong.

Following broad but simple steps and aspects cover the entire process and these are detailed out in the following sections of the article:

• Site hosting plan including security options
• Specific site settings
• Usage of ‘www’
• Plugins and use of rel=” canonical”
• Content optimization
• User comments
• Checking site speed and improvement after SEO

The Baseline — Your site’s health

Before embarking on modifying the content itself, it is useful to check where you stand at present! You can achieve this by using updated software on the latest server as well as choosing the right web host which will provide you with optimum performance. Then check your satisfaction level with this performance, where there were no limiting factors. Then assess yourself and develop a strategy.

The following lead-questions can help you with this:

• Hardware (H/w) and software (S/w) specifications that are enabling the site to run.
• Hosting plan and provider that is being used based on the budget sharing mode, or a paid, exclusive hosting plan from a popular host with servers that are customized to WordPress.

Hosting

1. Check its suitability
2. Upgrade if required
3. Check security setting

Suitability

The technical requirements of WordPress itself suggest that the hosting plan should preferably have the backing of the latest version of HTTPS, MariaDB, MySQL, or PHP. Although older versions will also work, newer versions will provide much better and compatible functionality. This may be a small investment to make, for higher gains later.

Use at least PHP version 7.0

The WordPress site may still use an outdated version of PHP. Statistics show that as many as fifty percent of WordPress sites are still running on the PHP 5.0 version. Already, PHP 7.0 and even higher versions are in use for more than 3 years. It is always advantageous to use the latest versions, to make full use of host services. In fact, in December 2019, the version of PHP that will be supported will be set to at least PHP 7.0. Moreover, this minimum requirement will get revised as newer versions are released.

Security Settings — Use HTTPS and SSL

Initially, adopting SSL which means obtaining an HTTPS URL, or a green padlock icon in the browser’s URL bar was made optional. Hence, sites that did not need an extra layer of security, avoided this. Yet, it is compulsory to have a valid SSL certification; else, the site may face punishment or have a warning placed along with its URL in the search list. Adding this blanket of security will also dissuade any third parties and hackers from capturing requests and data, or hampering the user experience.

Site Settings

The WordPress Settings menu has several sections and all of these should be explored one-by-one, to check the default setting being used for your site and make changes if required. Some of these settings can impact SEO and hence site visibility for possible users.

• Visibility settings in Settings → Reading, allowing search engines to index your website.

• Your permalink settings, which decide the format of your pages and posts, will also significantly affect SEO. Go to Settings → Permalinks to check and make changes. A detailed guide is found in wordpress.org

Decide whether or not to use ‘www’

This is a simple decision and process — Just decide whether your site is referenced as www.example.com, or as example.com. Then navigate to the general setting in Settings → General and check the version of choice. Remember that this decision does not impact SEO or even the technical usability of your site. It is only for you to maintain uniformity and use your branding pattern.

Install plugins and start using rel= “canonical”

1. Install a good SEO plugin — This carries out some clear and significant SEO activities for your site or blog automatically. You can choose from several choices, particularly recommended are — Yoast SEO, All in one SEO, WordPress SEO, and Squirrly.
2. After installing the plugin, enable the rel= “canonical” tag for pages on your site. Through this tag, search engines can locate the source URLs of content, thus preventing duplicity in content, making the post easier for users to read.

1. Install a .xml sitemap plugin for your WordPress blog. This will ensure that search engines receive links to all the pages on your site in a sitemap, in the .xml format. This will allow the search engine to index your site content faster and more easily, increasing its chances of appearing in search results. Google XML Sitemaps is a suitable plugin for this purpose.

Content Optimization

Internet users look for content that is interesting, trust-worthy (preferably with references) and specific for their needs and queries. Besides the obvious requirement for original and thoughtful content, this also indicates that the content should be presented and packaged well. Use the following suggestions to achieve this easily and systematically –

• Optimize individual pages and posts based on what attracts users. Use specific, familiar and popular key-phrase. ‘Longtail key-phrases’ is a suggested choice as they are specific.
• After writing a first-draft, re-visit the content by checking the draft, write wherever required, edit, and rewrite. This will ensure that the base content itself is strong.
• Optimize each post and make it reader-friendly.
• Include subheadings — describing the focus of a section. Words used in the subheadings should be like key-phrases.
• Have a catchy title — Questions, exclamation marks, ‘listicle’-kind titles may be useful.
• Have a clear and relevant meta description — A meta description is primarily used by search engines to show a description of your page in the search engine results, usually below your page title. Although these can be created automatically, you should polish them so that they include key-phrases and other eye-catchers.

• Add social media sharing buttons to each post.
• Add links to your previous posts wherever applicable.
• Permalink optimization.
• Usually, the post’s URL itself contains the focus key-phrase, clearly indicating the subject of the page.
• Keep the permalinks short but descriptive and clear.
• Page title Optimization — This is the content of the HTML <title> tag. This is an important factor, drawing the attention of the user, even a deciding factor whether they open the link.

• Heading alignment — WordPress does a transformation of the headings you put in the content based on the respective HTML tags namely (<h1>, <h2>, <h3> etc). This implies that the decision on types and sequence of headings is also important.
• Images and media optimization–These files should be titled and formatted properly so that search engines can utilize them while searching. Doing this makes your content more user-friendly as well, as they too can understand what each image is related to. Often, these can catch the interest of readers.
• Sustain the quality of content in each post.
• Update cornerstone content.
• Prevent keyword cannibalization.
• Make sure you prevent any duplicate content even by ignorance — If several pages or posts are indexed to URLs with almost overlapping content, the search engine automatically places all such URLs low on the search lists. To prevent this from happening noindex (using <meta name=’robots’ content=’noindex’ />) may be used. This will prevent a search engine from indexing that particular page.
• Publish content that supports audiences across the globe through ‘hreflang’ and Multilingual SEO.
• Optimize content.
• Optimize technical setup — Implement ‘hreflang’. This is a code that informs search engines about the variation in language from a particular page.

Check the ‘hreflang’ guide and take training for handling Multilingual SEO. Do this once you have done the basics and want to progress further.

‘Comments’ Section

Comments can provide valuable feedback about the content and also data about your site’s usage. Responding to comments is useful to maintain visitors.

Do make sure, however, that received comments are not spam — Use Akismet plugin for this, which is available pre-installed for all WordPress sites.

Site Speed and Improvement

After one iteration of optimizing the search engine, assess your site and reflect on what changes have been made and if the performance has improved. Then, if needed, carry out further optimization to improve it even further.

Desktop and Mobile Page Speed

Lastly, remember that practice makes every one of us perfect. You need to experience practically to become a pro. Hence follow these guidelines and achieve organic traffic to your site.

If you want to know more about what is SEO and are interested in pursuing a career in Digital Marketing, check out Great Learning’s postgraduate program in Strategic Digital Marketing.