If you want to increase the ranking of the site in the search engine, then you will not want to know and master everything about SEO. Fortunately, WordPress is already ‘ armed itself ‘ into a SEO-friendly CMS. It is the reason why many people choose WordPress to create and connect their websites.
There are many things you can do to improve and improve your SEO. Here we display 30 tips on how to SEO WordPress.
1. Install WordPress SEO Plugin
WordPress offers many built-in SEO features. Nevertheless, you can still maximize your site by improving WordPress SEO. The best and most used SEO plugin is Yoast SEO, and it’s the plugin that Hostinger uses.
The availability of this plugin makes it easy to optimize every page and post with selected keywords. In addition, the plugin also offers built-in analysis which is based on the latest updates of Algoritham. In fact you can also create XML sitemap and add schema markup to the site.
To setup Yoast, go to the WordPress dashboard and select Plugins > Add New. In the Search field, type Yoast SEO and click Install Now on the plugin, as below.
Click Activate immediately after the notification appears. Now the plugin is activated and you can access it by clicking the SEO icon in the left menu.
2. Keyword Research
By doing keyword research, the way your WordPress SEO will work. Of course keyword research will allow you to:
- Create content that site visitors often search for.
- Better understanding of market wishes and needs.
- Track the success of content you write.
- Understand how to increase website visitors and increase traffic to your site.
Many tools are available to help you do keyword research, among them KWFinder, SEMRush, and Google Keyword Planner.
While various posts can be written based solely on keyword research, there are some basic things you should know:
- Create a list of target keywords related to the topic.
- Enter these target keywords into the keyword research tool to find keywords that have high search
- volumes and low competition values.
- Competitor research by browsing similar sites through the Keyword research tool to check the keywords that are owned by the competitors. Of course, look for keywords that bring many traffic to your competitor site.
- Look for a competitor’s keywords that are low in value so you can compete easily.
3. Enable Search Engine Visibility
Inside of WordPress, there’s a built-in option that turns hiding your site’s presence from search engines.
At the beginning of website creation, this option is useful, but it will only affect the ranking of the site. If the previous two tips you have done, but have not yet shown results, the big possibility of Search Engine Visibility is turned off.
To check out this visibility option, go to Settings > Reading in the WordPress dashboard. Scroll down and you’ll see areas or sections called Search Engine Visibility.
Don’t tick the box that appears in the screenshot. Click Save Changes.
4. Set the Permalink structure
When WordPress is successfully installed for the first time, the page and post have an unusual URL structure. You need to know, this structure provides bad value for SEO performance.
The cleanest and easily traceable URL structure of a search engine is the ‘ Post name ‘ setting. By changing the default settings to this setting, you can enter the title of the post or page, even the keyword to the URL. To change the settings in question, go to Settings > Permalinks.
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Under Common Settings, select the Post name option.
If you’re late making changes or switching to ‘ Post name ‘ setting mode, then you won’t want to have to redirect to the old URL. You can handle it by installing the Change Permalink Helper plugin. Enter the old URL, and the URL will redirect you to the latest URL.
5. Add sites to Google Search Console
The next way WordPress SEO is using Google Search Console. This Tool will show your site’s appearance in search engines and also give you a warning in case of errors.
To add your site to Google Search Console, go to this page and create a new account with your Google account. Click Add A Property and enter the website URL.
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Click Add, and then you will be directed to a screen where you must verify ownership of the site. There are many ways that can be used to verify the site, but the easy way is to choose Alternate methods, then the HTML tag.
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Copy the displayed code, then go to the WordPress dashboard. Add the corresponding code to the header using the plugin. Open Plugins > Add New, and then look for Insert Headers and Footers.
Insert Headers and Footers Plugin
Install and activate the plugin displayed in the screenshot. Open the plugin through Settings > Insert Headers and Footers.
Insert Headers and Footers Plugin code
Paste the corresponding code into the box labeled Header, and then click Save. Lastly, open the Google Webmaster Tool again and click Verify.
6. Integrate Google Analytics
Another Google Tool that you should have is Google Analytics. This Tool will display the extent to which your SEO strategy succeeds by providing a variety of guides and articles on how to improve WordPress SEO and how to increase website visitors.
To create an account, go to the Google Analytics home page and a member list. Search the tracking code. Typically, this code is under the Tracking Info > Tracking Code. After that, copy the code as intended by the image below:
Google Analytics to track websites
Depending on the theme, you can directly add the Google Analytics tracking code. If you can’t, you can use the Insert Headers and Footers plugin as described earlier.
Open the plugin, then access the header area, then paste the tracking code. Finished! Now you can see the site stats. For more information, read our tutorial on how to add Google Analytics in WordPress.
7. Adding a Sitemap to Google
The Sitemap is used by search engines to track your website. Indeed your site can still be tracked without having to install the Sitemap. It’s just that the Sitemap makes it easy for search engines to analyze the data you want to search on your site.
Make sure certain pages that do not contribute to SEO increase are not ‘ tracked ‘ by Googe and pay more attention to those pages that contribute to SEO performance. If you are currently using the Yoast SEO plugin, then you can easily create and add a sitemap.
Open SEO > General > Features. Scroll down and enable XML Sitemaps.
Activate Sitemaps
Click the See XML sitemap link and the sitemap will open. Make sure if the Sitemap is already installed.
Next, add the Sitemap to Google. Sign in to the Google Search Console dashboard and click Sitemaps.
Add Sitemaps
In the right corner, there is an ADD/Test Sitemap option. Click the option, then enter the sitemap URL, then click Submit. Google will see and analyze the Sitemap on a regular basis, of course this speeds up the process of indexing.
8. Optimizing the site for Mobile devices
Google has just announced that it will test the mobile-first index. This means that Google will use the performance and functionality of the site page to rank, if displayed on mobile devices. Therefore, if you’re not using an unresponsive theme, then it’s time to edit the theme.
In addition to choosing a responsive theme, you can also check your overall site’s performance through the mobile spectrum. Open Google’s mobile-friendliness test and enter the site URL.
Google’s mobile-friendliness test
This way, you can find out how your site is performing when accessed through a mobile device. In addition, you can also get tips on how to improve the SEO of WordPress mobile version.
9. Raise Website Loading Speed
Loading speed of the website is always an important factor and should not be crossed. Websites that have long loading time will only adversely affect the site rankings and also a little bit disappointing site visitors. Because of this, page loading speeds are considered site ranking factors.
Follow some ways of increasing website visitors by raising the loading speed of the following sites:
Find the Baseline Number
First of all, you need to know the site performance in search engines. After that, open the GTMetrix tool and access your site through that tool. With this tool, you can see the number or amount of performance from your site so you know which one needs fixing and upgrading.
Upgrade the Hosting plan used
Sometimes configuration errors from the server side can cause slow loading. Therefore, web hosting with adequate capacity is very important to have. To improve the performance of WordPress, we have the use of WordPress hosting that makes it easy to manage your website.
Using a CDN
The CDN raises the loading speed by storing site versions on servers around the world. So when a visitor opens your site, the site shown is the version of the site closest to your location. Integrate your site with a free CDN, like Cloudflare.
Use the Caching Plugin
Caching plugins create static HTML files instead of PHP files that are usually needed to manage WordPress. This Plugin will minimize the number of requests or queries between the server and the user’s browser, which of course plays a full role in lowering the loading speed.
W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache are two of the most widely used examples of WordPress plugins.
Optimizing Media
If you want to upload images to your site, you should optimize the images.
Here are the steps to optimize your images:
Shrink the file size by opening the image through a tool like TinyPNG.
Resize the image before uploading.
Install the plugin to optimize the image, S do WP Smush.
10. Fixing Broken Links
The number of broken links on the site will certainly affect its performance and performances. Even broken links make it difficult for Google to see and visit your site.
The easiest way to check for broken links on your site is to go to Google Search Console and click Crawl Errors.
Open any errors that appear. From there, you’ll know which links are broken so you can fix them easily.
11. Define a Focus Keyword in each post
Although the way WordPress SEO to optimize keywords has changed, it still has an important role. Each time you write content, make sure that there is a focus keyword set.
Here are some suggestions if you want to optimise your keywords:
Don’t include too many keywords into the post. Enter the natural or natural keywords.
If possible, write the keyword in the first paragraph of the article.
Use the keywords in the title and subheading of the article.
Add target keyword to URL and meta description.
Install Yoast SEO plugin to optimize the keywords according to the four tips we’ve mentioned above.
Every time an article is written, enter the desired keyword into the tool that has been provided by the plugin. Through this tool, you will get a thorough analysis of how to optimize your posts using specific keywords.
Keyword in Yoast SEO plugin
The analysis is a tip and how to improve WordPress SEO and improve site rankings in search engines.
12. Create Quality content
Google loves if your site offers quality content. To find out what kind of content says quality, enter any keyword on Google and see the 10 best sites that appear as search results. From the search it can be concluded that there are two criteria for quality content:
Content is long and meets standard.
The content provides information that users or site visitors need.
The question is, do you know correctly the information that is sought and needed by the user? Of course, this information relates to the keywords.
When creating your content, you need to research first to figure out the ranking of a topic and understand why this topic is at the top. Sometimes, content ratings are determined only from the domain. However, if each site has the same authority, the content will be a differentiator factor.
To get a better perspective on the keywords and what users are looking for, ask this question to yourself:
Are user or site visitors looking for product information or content?
Do users or site visitors search for articles or tutorials with deeper information? Or just simply read a short article?
Why are the pages currently ranking?
What kind of content style does the keyword fit?
With a better understanding of how WordPress SEO is improved, knowing which pages need to improve their ranking in search engines, and how to learn what information the user is looking for, is now ready to create quality content.
13. Create Longer content
Longer content tends to have a better ranking in search engines. Recent studies from Buzzsumo and Moz found the fact that longer content is more shared on social media as well as gaining backlinks, which of course affects rankings.
Another study concluded that most of the content on the first page of Google had a length of more than 2000 words. However, it does not mean you have to write articles or tutorials with similar amounts. The number of words is at least a reference when writing articles.
Make sure you write quality articles or tutorials, instead of being filled with any words to meet the target word count.
Focus on Intent keywords. Find out the reason why users are looking for that keyword and not other keywords. After that, write the related content to answer the needs of the user – in some cases, you’ll be writing content with fewer word counts.
14. Create content with topics and relevant information around the clock
Content with relevant topics of all time, hereinafter called Evergreen Content, can be one way WordPress SEO to increase traffic. No matter what year the content is accessed, the contents and information contained therein can always be used as reference.
For example, The article is titled The Ultimate Guide to Onsite SEO and What You Need to Know About Google’s Latest Update. The first article has timeless information and is accessible at any time, while the second article contains information that is only needed within a certain period of time. After writing evergreen content, it doesn’t mean you’ll forget about it and no updates at all. Update the article by providing up-to-date information about topics.
In addition to being worthy of readability, evergreen content also provides relevant information so you can share it on social media, promote it, and even get backlinks for this content. Generally, this kind of content will last a long time on Google’s first page.
While creating or writing evergreen content requires high dedication, the results you Tuai will pay off.
15. Add links to qualified websites
Installing links in content that leads to a quality website will not make SEO performance worse, instead becoming one of the ways to improve WordPress SEO. When you attach a link pointing to a website with high-quality authoritative, Google will know that the post link has content similar to the one on your site. In addition, links to websites with the best content will provide a plus value from the visitor’s side as they get added information.
Adding outbound links to one of the ways of improving WordPress SEO. So, do it periodically. In addition, installing links in your content also increases credibility so that it can easily gain the trust of the site visitors. Another advantage of outbound links is that it allows you to be able to dialogues with other site owners.
To prevent a visitor from automatically exiting your website page, make sure that you set the post link open in a new window. Here are the steps:
Adding hyperlinks
To create a hyperlink, highlight a word or sentence and click the Hyperlink button.
Add hyperlinks
Click the gear icon or gear that will show the link options.
Change Link Options
A Text box will appear. Select Open link in a new tab.
Open link in a new tab option
Every time a user clicks on that link, a new tab opens and the user will not exit the page of your site.
16. Interlink Content
When possible, add links that point to old content published on your site. Here are excess internal linking:
Make it easy for Google bots to explore websites and access pages and posts in depth and detail.
Send link juice to posts and other pages on the blog that may not pull the link yourself.
Help Google know and understand the context of the site’s page content by using linked text hyperlinks.
Making the site visitors feel at home when accessing your website so that the bounce rate decreases and the time on site is improved.
In WordPress, you can easily create interlinks to the content inside the blog.
Whenever you write an article, highlight a specific piece of text and click the Hyperlink button. Click the gear icon and select the link option.
Hyperlink Options
In the pop-up window, there’s a list of previous posts you’ve written. Choose the most relevant post.
List of internal links
17. Optimizing Post and Page titles
The most important heading tag is the title tag or title tag. This Tag informs Google about your site and may affect visitors to click or leave your site. Not yet know which title tag is? See the post or page name. This is the title of your tag.
Here’s a quick information to optimize the title tag:
Add a target keyword at the beginning of the content, like in the headline.
Write the title tag with a word count of about 60-70 characters.
Write interesting headlines so that the visitors do not hesitate to click on your site.
Writing or changing the title tag into a well-optimized title that attracts visitors is easy. What’s more if you use Yoast SEO plugin.
To change the title tag, open one of the posts and scroll down. You’ll see an area called Snippet Editor.
Yoast SEO Snippet
In this area or section, you can manage and optimize your SEO titles to have a good ranking in search engines.
18. Optimizing Header Tags
Tag headers give the crawler bot an overview of the content on your site. By implementing this tag thoroughly on the content, content is more readable and can be well optimized on search engines.
Generally, each post has an H1 tag and its hierarchical consists of H2, H3, H4, and so on.
The H1 Tag is the title of your post. Add a target keyword here. For other tag headers, if possible, use a variation of the target keyword. However, don’t add too many keywords in the heading tags because it sounds not natural.
In the WordPress editor, you can easily add header tags via the drop-down menu.
Header tags
19. Use short URLS
The shorter the URL, the better the search engine eyes. That’s why, if your content’s URL is too long, you’ll need to remove it after that it doesn’t contain many categories or directories. You just need to add a target keyword in the URL and delete other unnecessary words.
While it doesn’t affect your site’s ranking, long URLS look like spam links and will make CTR low. Change the permalink so you can manage the URL structure.
Here are tips for creating an SEO-friendly URL:
If possible, use short, short URLS. Remove unnecessary words.
Add a target keyword in the URL.
We recommend the title and URL accordingly.
The URL must be readable by site visitors.
If possible, delete different categories and folders.
Follow the tips above and guaranteed you can easily edit the URL via WordPress. In the page or post creation section, click Edit in the Permalink area just below the heading.
20. Optimizing Meta Description
The Meta description is a short sentence under the heading that appears in the search results. This sentence gives an overview of the content.
Optimizing Meta Description
Although not directly a ranking factor, the meta description will increase the number of CTR in the search engine. So write the meta description as short and as clear as possible to entice visitors to click on your post instead of an article from another site.
The Data raised in the search engine is based on correlation. However, if your site has a high CTR, Google will assess that your website has information that is relevant to what the user is looking for. Thus, your site’s ranking will automatically rise.
Here are tips and suggestions for optimizing meta Description:
Add a focus keyword in the meta description. Google will highlight the keywords you enter so it’s not impossible for your site to appear on the first page.
Let’s say the meta description is ad copy. Write a nice and interesting meta description to let users click on the content you’re publish.
21. Adding Schema Markup
Ever heard of Schema Markup? Or maybe you’ve added it on the site? Essentially, schema markup is an additional code that helps search engines to transmit data to site visitors. By adding schema markup, the list of search engines will look more attractive. Also, CTR will go up and more traffic to your website.
Some WordPress themes offer a built-in schema markup. To check if your site has already installed the schema, activate this tool. In return, if the schema is not installed, you can use the Schema plugin. The Plugin is easy to manage and will automatically add schema markup to your site.
22. Optimizing Google SERP
When looking for a keyword on Google, have you seen the ‘ box ‘ that appears at the very top of the search results? It looks like this:
Google Knowledge Graph
This ‘ box ‘ is at the top so it’s likely that a site will get a lot of traffic and clicks. If your content is already on the first page of Google, by optimizing your SERP, you’ll see two listings in the search results.
Here’s how to increase website visitors by optimizing SERPS:
Add the schema markup to the site.
Answer the questions implied by the keyword at the beginning of your post.
Arrange your answers in sequential or not sequential format.
23. Optimizing Images
Adding images to your content is a way for readers to be more satisfied when viewing or reading your content. In addition, the availability of images on the content is able to make visitors feel comfortable to linger because it feels a suitable and desirable explanation. Apparently, images can be optimized as one way WordPress SEO.
There are three components for image optimization:
Image Title Text
Search engines do not explore the title of the image (hereinafter Image title text), but slightly affect the satisfaction of the visitors when viewing or reading your content. When the user redirects the mouse to the image, a text image title appears.
To change the image title text, open the Post editor on the image. To do this, mouse over the image and click the Pencil icon to edit the title.
In Advanced Options, type the title of the image.
Type the image title
Alt Text
Alt text is an indicator that provides an overview of your content on Google. In the very first image uploaded to the post, add a focus keyword in the alt text. Meanwhile, for other images, use a variation of the target keyword, or you can also write a short description.
To change the alt text, hover your mouse over the image. Click the pencil icon to edit the alt text. Locate the Alternative Text field and add a focus keyword or its variation in that column.
Edit Alt Text Images
Filename
Filenames affect image rankings in Google image search and of course attract more visitors and increase traffic.
Most default file names are long and confusing, even some are unrelated to the topic of the content. Therefore, before uploading an image, first know the reason why this image should be uploaded and also its keywordtarget. Add a focus keyword (the keyword you’re targeting) to a short description of the image filename.
If you use more than one word in the image file name, don’t forget to include a hyphen. Google will indicate this connection mark as a space.
24. No-Follow Affiliate Links
Banak websites are using affiliate links to earn revenue. These links are used to track commissions when you recommend a product, service, or course.
Just that, using too many affiliate links negatively impacts Google. You can hide these affiliate links and make sure the links go into the no-follow category by activating the Pretty Links plugin.
Pretty Links is a plugin that will convert all links implanted into unique links and not look like affiliate links. Another advantage that this plugin has is its ability to track so you can see how many users are clicking on your content link.
To install and activate this plugin, go to Plugins > Add New and search for Pretty Links.
Installing the Pretty Links Plugin
After successfully installed and activated, open the Pretty Link > Options on the left side of the sidebar.
To ensure that all of your affiliate links are no-follow, tick the ADD nofollow to link under the Link Defaults setting.
Pretty Links Plugin Settings
Create a new link by selecting the Add New Link option, then entering the affiliate URL, and then start creating a link.
25. Adding HTTPS to your site
The way WordPress SEO can be seen by Google is to take advantage of HTTPS. Add HTTPS to boost your site’s ranking in search engines. In addition, HTTPS also guarantees that the connection to your website is secure and data transmitted between the browser and the website can be well encrypted.
Here are the steps you should take if you want to add HTTPS to your WordPress site address:
Make sure your hosting provider is currently offering HTTPS and SSL services.
Buy an SSL certificate or get it on Let’s Encrypt.
Install the SSL certificate through your hosting provider.
Check if SSL is working.
Toggle all HTTP traffic and links to HTTPS.
26. Installing a quality Backlink
One of the ways WordPress SEO in order to have value in search engines is to utilize backlinks. The better the links you have, the more likely your site will appear on the first page. Based on research done by Matthew Barby, if a page has an excellent and qualified backlink, the rating will be high in the search results.
Here are some methods to create quality backlinks on your site:
Create a quality content (skyscraper).
Find a broken backlink.
Create content that is ego-verse.
Create guest posts on popular sites.
Do the outreach link building.
Interested in knowing the backlinks deeper again? Please read some articles below:
How to Get High Quality Backlinks in 2018.
How to Build Backlinks When You Have A Brand New Site and No Money.
27. SEO Audit
If you’re not sure if your site is well optimized, then you can audit the SEO. For this method, you don’t need to check the pages one by one, just install the SEO auditing tool. This Tool will analyze your site through an examination series. Report or report will be provided if you have optimized the SEO correctly and what needs to be improved.
The Free SEO auditing Tool You can use today is also SEOSiteCheckup. This Tool will analyze a range of 50 onsite ranking factors and inform the performance of your site. Another Tool you can use is Varvy SEO that will check if your site is in line with Google’s guidelines.
28. Monitor Backlink Profile
By monitoring the Backlink profile, you can check if there are any things that are enhanced in Peru offsite SEO. As already mentioned, backlinks are one of the most important factors for raising a site’s rankings. So, you should check it as often as possible.
Seeing how many backlinks lead to your site or content is fun. It’s just that, not the number of backlinks to focus on, but the quality and releven or the presence of those links. The more authoritative and relevant a site that installs backlinks to your website, the better your site ranks in search engines.
There are a variety of tools that can help you monitor backlinks. One of the most widely used tools is Ahrefs. This Tool will tell you the number of sites with backlinks that point to your site, the quality of the backlinks, the number of referring domains, and much more. Although premium, this tool is worth having as it provides the required data.
If you are looking for a free tool, then SEOProfiler is the answer. Create an account in this tool and get a detailed report or backlink report as a whole as well as per page.
29. Force Google to explore your site
Usually your site is explored after the latest content is posted. It turns out that there’s a special way for Google to index your site without having to wait for new posts.
Open Google Search Console, then select Crawl, and then click Fetch as Google. Enter the URL of the post you just publish or update and click FETCH.
Force Crawl
Click Request Indexing and your latest URL will be indexed by Google. Sometimes this process can’t happen instantly, but it’s certainly faster than having to wait for Google to index your site.
30. Targeting Long-Tail Keyword
In addition to the niche or topics, rising site rankings on Google also depends on the main keyword or the main keyword used. Most of the keywords are owned by Site content that has long been perched on Google’s search engine. Not to mention if these sites are helped with a quality backlink profile.
If so, you have to rotate the brain by targeting keywords that are of less than small but very specific volumes. This kind of keyword is categorized as long-tail keyword. For example, consider what your site or user will do before you buy a product. After that, use the tool, such as KWFinder, to get an estimate or estimate of the difficulty and search volume. Create a list of keyword options that if you’re attracting a lot of traffic, then publish your content by not forgetting to implement the WordPress SEO way mentioned above. Thus, the expected traffic will regularly lead to your website.
Conclusion
There are a lot of things you need to know and consider if you want to optimize your site in search engines. Hopefully through this tutorial, you can improve the ranking of the site.
Know, the greater the effort and focus that you are devoted to SEO, the more feasible also the results you get.
Do you have information about how to improve WordPress SEO or how to increase website visitors? Feel free to share with us via the comment field below.
