If your website can’t be found online through search, then all other digital endeavors are simply dead in the water. Thankfully, WordPress SEO can save a flagging website…
Basically, search engine optimisation (SEO) for WordPress is the process of boosting your website’s visibility in major search engines to generate more quality traffic. Getting your WordPress SEO right involves trial and error, continuous tweaking and a willingness to test ideas, over and over again. And to be seen organically, you’ll need to get acquainted with these four tenets:
- Get to grips with the ins and outs of search engines (like Google).
- Develop a website that’s SEO-enriched, which makes it appealing for both users and search engines.
- Populate said website with SEO-optimised content.
- Educate yourself on what content your audience wants to see, or needs to consume to solve their particular pain point.
WordPress SEO best practices
You can employ an endless number of strategies to rise through the ranks of Google. For the purpose of getting the basics right, we’ll list a few quick wins first.
Let’s get into it:
- Make sure your primary keyword is in the first paragraph of your piece, included in the headline and easily visible at the top of the page.
- In terms of WordPress SEO, duplicate content is one of the greatest sins you can commit. Ensure the content you create is authentic and original — this includes titles, descriptions and meta-data, too.
- Don’t forget about image alt text! This is the copy that displays when your image or page doesn’t load, or when a user hovers over the visual. Including your primary keyword here is a neat little trick to boost your SEO optimisation.
- You should release authoritative content that forgoes the fluff to deliver rich, valuable information to your readers. According to a recent content research case study, ‘Long-form content gets an average of 77.2% more links than short articles. Therefore, long-form content appears to be ideal for backlink acquisition.’ Additionally, having a strong network of backlinks means higher organic search results for your website.
More WordPress SEO practices (with a granular twist)
Based on research by HubSpot, websites that managed to get onto Google’s ‘featured snippets’ section doubled their click-through rates. But while the exact determining factors are still something of a mystery, the research concluded that the following made it more likely a website would feature:
- A search query should appear in a header somewhere in the content.
- The copy you want for the ‘featured snippet’ should be placed in a <p> tag that’s right beneath the header in the last point.
- The answer you want featured should be 54–58 words in length.
- Snippets for the same question often have unique answers across Google.com, Google.co.uk, Google.com.au, and Google.ie.
Create an informational hub and harness Voice Search
You should know that search engines are adapting their algorithms to the tune of ‘cluster content’ and ‘pillar pages’. So by creating a one-stop shop for information on a particular subject, you can link to subtopics (or clusters) to create a rich informational ecosystem that uses the original pillar page as an anchor point.
Because Google gifts better rankings to pages with lower bounce rates and higher user retention, you should consider . Undoubtedly, there is persuasive research that posits that including a video on your landing page elevates the customer experience, builds trust and boosts conversion rates. According to Aberdeen Group, marketing campaigns with video have a 34% higher conversion rate.
With Google Home, Siri and Alexa now household names, Voice Search is well and truly here. In fact, 20% of all queries on mobile apps are now voice-based. Capitalise on this rising trend by publishing long-form content, ensuring your pages load quickly and using well-researched long-tailed keywords that align with how people actually speak (and search).
Yoast SEO — WordPress’ most popular search engine plugin
Launched in 2008, Yoast SEO is WordPress’ number one search engine optimization plugin, powering millions upon millions of websites to better rankings in top search engines. What makes it so effective is the dedicated team behind the technology — developers, testers, architects and SEO experts work behind the scenes to ensure that the functionality is up to date and the optimization powerful. With Yoast SEO, you get:
- Title and meta description templates for improved branding and consistent snippets in the search results.
- A cutting-edge Schema implementation that assists search engines in making sense of your site to increase the chance on those search results.
- Highly advanced XML Sitemaps functionality at the touch of a button.
- Full control of your website’s breadcrumbs.
- Set canonical URLs to avoid duplicate content using automation.
When in doubt, search for help
Creating an SEO-optimised WordPress website can seem an almost impossible task. There are many different factors at play, each working with the other like the complex inner workings of a complicated timepiece.
We’d like to help you make sense of it all. Kaira crafts best-in-class WordPress themes and plugins that empower users to easily set-up their own beautiful websites. We’d like to share our love of WordPress and WordPress SEO by helping you grow your own unique brand online.
Reach out for assistance should you have any questions — we’re always happy to help! If you’d like to see an example of what we do best, check out our brand new WordPress theme, Overlay.
