But that\u2019s an oversimplification. Search engine algorithms (the rules by which they rank websites over others) are devised in a way that give precedence to websites that provide a better and more relevant experience for users.<\/p>\n
Take this example, for instance. Let\u2019s say someone were online hunting around for information about \u201cWhat is WordPress Multisite\u201d:<\/p>\n
![\"Google](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Google-Search.png\")
<\/div>\nGoogle then returns the following results on the first search engine result page (SERP):<\/p>\n
![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Google-Search-Results.png\")
<\/div>\nNotice how the term \u201cWordPress Multisite\u201d shows up in every single one of these results, but it\u2019s not just about that phrase. Each of these entries answers the original question thoroughly. And that\u2019s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to optimizing a site for search and having your site be deemed \u201crelevant\u201d. Google takes other factors into consideration, like the security of the site, the quality of the content, and even the reputation of the sites that link to back to it.<\/p>\n
Needless to say, WordPress SEO requires a lot of work to ensure that your site is the most relevant and valuable result that appears in search.<\/p>\n
Now, if you\u2019re wondering whether you could just tackle this bit by bit and put a full-blown SEO strategy in place as time goes on, let me put it to you this way:<\/p>\n
This is what the top of that search result page actually looks like:<\/p>\n
![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Top-of-Google-Search-Results.png\")
<\/div>\nThe results I showed you before were the organic results that don\u2019t show up until you scroll down past the page fold. As you can imagine, these paid and feature results that occupy prime real estate in search can distract from the websites below that worked hard to build a decent amount of link value.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Smart Insights<\/a> has found that the first organic search result garners significantly more clicks than any other organic search result on these pages.<\/p>\n So, if you\u2019re going to take time to optimize your WordPress site for search, you better do it as best as you can because it can be a real battle to not only get your site to rank, but to get it to the top of search results.<\/p>\n With that out of the way, let\u2019s focus on practical matters here. In other words: what do you need to do to optimize your WordPress site to give it the best fighting chance in search?<\/p>\n As you can see in the data presented above, it\u2019s absolutely critical that your site get as close to the top of the first SERP as possible. In order to do this, you need to have a firm understanding of the following:<\/p>\n In the past, it may have been okay for websites to be stuffed with as many keywords as possible–even if they resulted in nonsensical patches of text. Google wasn\u2019t quite hip to the various ways in which \u201cblack hat\u201d SEO tactics could trick search algorithms to giving a site a big boost in rank. However, Google is much smarter and wiser now, and so you need to play fair.<\/p>\n In order to do that, this means your WordPress site needs to have a narrow focus. Really, this is no different than any business model. You come up with one brilliant idea, shape your services or products around that niche, and then promote it accordingly. You have to do the same with your site.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve identified this niche for yourself, you can start using WordPress SEO tools<\/a> to help you piece together the rest. Many of these tools will actually come into play later as you work on analyzing the progress your site has made in search, but, for now, focus on what you can do to find the best keywords for your site.<\/p>\n Start first by looking at competition that fits into a similar niche and has a lookalike audience.<\/p>\n Next, research keyword viability for your WordPress site. It\u2019s not enough to just say, \u201cWell, \u2018stink-free socks\u2019 works great for Competitor A, so I\u2019m going to use that.\u201d You have to think about how much competition there is for a term like \u201cstink-free socks\u201d and how long it will take to build up enough authority and trust with users and search engines before you start ranking for that term.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why these kinds of competitor and keyword analysis SEO tools really come in handy in the early stages of SEO work. They\u2019ll take a lot of the guesswork out of choosing which search terms are right for your site. Rely on what the data tells you, choose a few keywords that will work well for you, and move on to implementation.<\/p>\n You may have already completed this step in the WordPress Tutorial for Beginners, but it\u2019s still worth revisiting to make sure everything is set up correctly.<\/p>\n Reading<\/b> In the option that says \u201cFor each article in a feed, show\u201d, select the Summary option. What this does is shorten how your blog posts appear on the main blog page.<\/p>\n Take a look at the Moz blog, for instance:<\/p>\n This is perfect. Each blog post comes with a short summary of the post\u2019s content. This is good for SEO for three reasons:<\/p>\n One more thing to note in the Reading settings is the checkbox at the bottom. Unless your site is in development, is private, or you have another reason for not wanting it to rank, do not check this box.<\/p>\n Discussion<\/b> The first is \u201cAllow link notifications from other blogs\u201d. Trackbacks and pingbacks<\/a> have the potential to introduce spam onto an otherwise harmless WordPress site. Spam and any other malicious attack from the outside of your site can do serious harm to your site\u2019s reputation and, consequently, hurt your search results. So, if you\u2019re nervous about this kind of spam getting through, uncheck this box.<\/p>\n The second checkbox you need to look at is \u201cAllow people to post comments on new articles\u201d. Any time you open your site to comments from others, you run the risk of a bad link making its way onto your site and harming your visitors in the process.<\/p>\n That said, leaving your blog open to comments from your audience can also be a really great thing, too. You can develop a real sense of community and also demonstrate to visitors that you\u2019re interested in hearing what they have to say (that is, if you\u2019re willing to take the time to respond).<\/p>\n Marketers have experimented with the idea of disabling comments in WordPress<\/a> in the past, and there have been mixed results. Some insist that comments were unnecessary and their sites were better off without them while others actually decided that the risk was worthy of the reward when leaving comments in place.<\/p>\n My suggestion for you? Leave them enabled for now. Watch what happens as your site grows and, if you find that there are no direct SEO benefits, uncheck this box.<\/p>\n Permalinks<\/b> As you can see, WordPress gives you a number of options for how to display your blog post\u2019s URL structure. The \u201cPlain\u201d default structure and \u201cNumeric\u201d should always be avoided. While they may be the shortest of the link structures, they\u2019re the least user-friendly. Users remember links based on their name, not the random assignment of numbers.<\/p>\n As for the other options, you can choose which one you like best. So long as the post name appears in there somewhere, it\u2019ll improve your SEO. I\u2019ll get into the specifics of this a bit more below.<\/p>\n This one might seem like a stretch, but I assure you it\u2019s not. Here\u2019s why using a trustworthy WordPress theme<\/a> actually matters for SEO:<\/p>\n A WordPress site must always be responsive in design. Always.<\/em> If you\u2019re using an older theme or one that hasn\u2019t been designed to match modern standards, you could compromise the on-site experience for mobile users (which Google is about to place a heavy emphasis on in their indexing process<\/a>).<\/p>\n A poorly-written WordPress theme could lead to a broken experience on the site–widgets not working, slow-loading pages, low-resolution imagery. Anything that makes your visitors stop and say, \u201cHmmm\u2026 I don\u2019t think I want to be here anymore\u201d, is going to drive up your bounce rates and down the time they spend on your site. These are two key factors Google uses to determine the quality of content on a site, so this matters a great deal.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also the security piece to think about, too. WordPress themes that aren\u2019t coded well, that aren\u2019t updated frequently by the developer, or that have other vulnerabilities leaving them open to hackers could lead to an infection on your site. WordPress sites that have been deemed unsafe not only stand to face a penalty from Google, but could be blacklisted from search altogether.<\/p>\n So, make sure you\u2019re using a trustworthy WordPress theme.<\/p>\n Google has incrementally been updating the rules of Chrome over the past few years. Their ultimate goal–to encourage as many web developers and webmasters to move their sites over to HTTPS as possible–has reached peak status. As of July 2018<\/a>, any user who visits a website using the Chrome browser will either be notified that the site is safe (the ones on HTTPS) or unsafe (the ones still on HTTP).<\/p>\n As you can imagine, having your site marked as \u201cnot safe\u201d by Google could be a major blow to a business if traffic drops as a result. And, as traffic drops, so too does your site\u2019s rank in search as Google deems your site to be less concerned with user security and providing an experience that is less than optimal.<\/p>\n To avoid this SEO penalty, be sure your WordPress site has an SSL certificate installed<\/a>. This is what will change your web address from http to https and create the extra layer of encryption Google–and your users–want to see.<\/p>\n As this guide<\/a> explains, you should write content for your users, not to appease the search engines. This goes back to the idea that keyword stuffing and other shady SEO trickery should be avoided at all costs.<\/p>\n If you really want to win over Google, then you have to make your visitors happy. And, how do you do that? By writing content that delivers real value.<\/p>\n Go back to that original research and use that as a starting point. Your site essentially needs to serve as some sort of \u201cpain relief\u201d for your visitors. Do you provide a service that makes their lives easier? Do you sell products they absolutely need? Do you publish stories with actionable tips? Whatever your goal, keep that as your focus so that you can deliver a consistent and valuable message with each page of your site.<\/p>\n In this next step, you\u2019ll need to install an SEO plugin on your WordPress site. As with a WordPress theme, you\u2019ll want to use one that\u2019s well-made and regularly updated by the plugin developer. If you\u2019d like to do some research on your own, here is a rundown of the best SEO plugins<\/a> currently available. Or, you can just go with SmartCrawl<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve found your plugin, install and activate it in WordPress.<\/p>\n Below, I\u2019m going to use the SmartCrawl plugin as an example of how to set one of these up:<\/p>\n Title & Meta<\/b> The Settings will also allow you to define the separator symbol (e.g. | , \/ , – ) used in your metadata templates.<\/p>\n Social<\/b> By enabling features like OpenGraph and implementing Schema Markup, you can ensure that your posts are optimized for users in search. And by taking the time to pay attention to how your content appears in social, you\u2019ll, in turn, increase the likelihood that users will engage with it (i.e. share it) and drive up the value of the links on your site, which is an important ranking signal in search.<\/p>\n Sitemap<\/b> With SmartCrawl, you\u2019ll get the added bonus of a \u201cURL Crawler\u201d tool which monitors for things like broken links and bad redirection rules. This is something Google watches out for in its own ranking system, so it\u2019s nice to have this SEO plugin checking for it on your end.<\/p>\n Settings<\/b> Advanced Tools<\/b> Moz is one of those keyword and competitor analysis tools I referenced above. So, if you have an account with them, enter the details of it here so SmartCrawl can work with your tool and sync all your SEO efforts in one place.<\/p>\n Once your content is written, I would suggest you go back and infuse your content with the focus keywords you identified in Step 1. There\u2019s no need to force these keywords into your content either. If you\u2019ve built your content around the original message and goal that came out of your research, then the keywords should flow in naturally.<\/p>\n There are a couple things to keep in mind here when working with focus keywords in WordPress.<\/p>\n For starters, try to use long-tail keywords as much as possible. A long-tail keyword is one that\u2019s written more like a phrase we\u2019d use in natural speech. This is going to become even more important as the number of mobile visitors increases and they turn to voice search as a means for finding websites like yours. Think about it like this:<\/p>\n Traditionally, a focus keyword for a page about WordPress Multisite might have been:<\/p>\n \u201cWordPress Multisite\u201d<\/p>\n But that\u2019s not really how we search anymore–on desktop or mobile. Instead, a long-tail focus keyword probably makes more sense. Personally, I like to use something like AnswerThePublic<\/a> to see what types of questions and phrases are most commonly associated with the keyword I\u2019m interested in.<\/p>\n I then cross-check those phrases in my keyword analyzer tool to see which one would be the best fit and also the easiest to rank for.<\/p>\n In terms of getting those keywords into your content, it\u2019s not just about inserting those phrases haphazardly throughout each page. There\u2019s a formula you should follow if you want to set up a steady rhythm throughout that reinforces the main idea. This is also important for search engines as they look at certain parts of the page in order to determine what your content is really about.<\/p>\n Here is what you need to do:<\/p>\n 1. Start with your SEO plugin tool.<\/b><\/p>\n This tool will guide you on which metadata fields you need to fill in. Note that the focus keyword should appear in each of them:<\/p>\n As you can see in the screenshot above, the SEO plugin will analyze the quality of your metadata. In this case, the title is good (green) and the description isn\u2019t long enough (red).<\/p>\n Once you\u2019re done editing these fields, scroll above to verify that you like how it appears in search.<\/p>\n 2. Edit the slug.<\/b> To do this, go to your page and click on the Edit button to the right of the permalink.<\/p>\n You can then rename your slug as you see fit. Try to keep it short, memorable, easy to type out, and include the focus keyword.<\/p>\n 3. Add the focus keyword into the content.<\/b> So, focus on including it:<\/p>\n And don\u2019t forget to make the content on each page easy to read, in general. You can do this through the overall structure and layout<\/a>. This means using shorter paragraphs, bulleted lists, and visuals to keep the flow light and easy to get through.<\/p>\n Just as written content needs to be optimized for search, so too do your visuals. This means using the right metadata to tag them and also ensuring they load quickly while looking awesome regardless of which device your site is accessed from.<\/p>\n Here is how you can maintain this balancing act:<\/p>\n By giving your visuals some love, you\u2019ll provide visitors with a great all-around experience as they peruse the content on your site. Also, by adding relevant metadata and keywords to your uploaded files, you\u2019ll give Google a chance to rank your images and video in search, too.<\/p>\n First, let\u2019s talk about internal link building<\/a>. This is the process by which you create a system of links that connect all pages of your site with one another. Of course, this doesn\u2019t mean you need to stuff your pages with a link out to every page or post on your site–that could quickly get out of control, especially for larger enterprise and e-commerce sites.<\/p>\n Instead, focus on having at least one internal link present on every page of your site. This way, you\u2019ll keep visitors constantly moving from one page to the next. The longer they stay on your site, the more content they read, and the better your SEO score will be.<\/p>\n There are also external links to think about, as there will come a time when you need to reference an external source in your content (like when citing data). As a general rule, you should use high-authority websites–those that are trusted by Google and rank well themselves. In so using them, you can piggyback on top of the trust they\u2019ve established with search.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll also want to create a backlink structure. This will be the most difficult of the three mentioned here, but it may end up being the most valuable if you can get an incredibly authoritative source to link back to your content. Just keep in mind that this is a somewhat advanced SEO technique–as your site needs to be as close to 100% as possible before doing it–so don\u2019t fret if you can\u2019t get a backlinking network up and running right away.<\/p>\n Users expect your website to load super fast and so too will search engines. If you\u2019ve built anything besides a single-page, static WordPress site, then you\u2019re going to want to install a caching plugin<\/a> right away. Plugins like Hummingbird<\/a> help with file minification, page caching, and general speeding up of your WordPress site no matter how much content is on the site.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t forget about equipping your site with WordPress security plugins<\/a> either. As I mentioned earlier, Google places a pretty big emphasis on sites that use HTTPS, but that\u2019s not where their concerns with security stop. Do your due diligence and ensure that you\u2019ve covered your security bases with this checklist<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Google Search Console<\/a> is the gateway between your Google Analytics account and your website. While Google Analytics should still be used to analyze the traffic on your site, Google Search Console provides you with more search engine-focused data.<\/p>\n Within this console, you can learn about how Google crawls your website, errors its detected along the way, as well as any potential issues with security or performance they\u2019ve detected. You can also use the Google Search Console to \u201cFetch as Google\u201d:<\/p>\n This will give you an opportunity to see your website from the point of view of Google and its users.<\/p>\n There is quite a lot of valuable information contained within this seemingly simple portal. Be sure to take time to acquaint yourself with it and check in regularly to maintain a good awareness of what\u2019s happening with your site in search.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve finished implementing all of the SEO work above, be sure to schedule time to run an SEO scan on your site once a month. You can do this using Smartcrawl. In addition to scanning your site for issues with SEO, it will also tell you if there\u2019s anything wrong with performance or security–two other pieces that play a part in the optimization of your site in search.<\/p>\n In addition to using tools to discover broken links<\/a> or when pages are missing metadata<\/a>, it’s also great to know what your current search rank is for the focus keywords you\u2019ve chosen for yourself.<\/p>\n The goal of this task isn\u2019t to question all of the hard work you\u2019ve done for SEO. Instead, this is about verifying whether or not your keywords are still relevant. You never know. As time goes by, you may find that users gravitate to other variations of your keywords or new ones altogether. And there\u2019s nothing that says you can\u2019t revamp your content to better align with those keywords. A WordPress website is always a work in progress and SEO is no different.<\/p>\n![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Smart-Insights-Data.png\")
<\/div>\nStep 1: Research<\/h3>\n
\n
\n
Step 2: Update WordPress Settings<\/h3>\n
\nWhen you\u2019re inside WordPress, go to the Settings tab and click on Reading.<\/p>\n![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Settings-Reading.png\")
<\/div>\n![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Moz-Blog.png\")
<\/div>\n\n
\nUnder Discussion settings, there are two checkboxes you need to pay particular attention to.<\/p>\n![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Settings-Discussion.png\")
<\/div>\n
\nThe last Settings page to configure is the Permalinks page.<\/p>\n![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Settings-Permalinks.png\")
<\/div>\nStep 3: Use a Trustworthy WordPress Theme<\/h3>\n
Step 4: Add an SSL Certificate<\/h3>\n
![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/HTTPS-Warning.png\")
<\/div>\nStep 5: Write High-Quality Content<\/h3>\n
Step 6: Install an SEO Plugin<\/h3>\n
![\"Smartcrawl](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/smartcrawl-banner-1050x338.png\")
<\/a>
\n![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Post-Types-SEO.png\")
<\/div>
\nWithin this section, you\u2019ll have the ability to define metadata. This is the information that shows up in search; in other words, the page\u2019s name and the description.<\/p>\n\n
\n![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Social-Settings.png\")
<\/div>
\nThe Social settings section is helpful for when your content is shared on social media.<\/p>\n
\n![\"screenshot](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Activate-Sitemap.png\")
<\/div>
\nAn XML sitemap is a tool that allows you to communicate directly with search engines, letting them know about the structure of your website. As your site updates with new or revised content, your SEO plugin will send the revised sitemap directly to search engines so you don\u2019t have to do it.<\/p>\n
\n![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/SmartCrawl-Settings.png\")
<\/div>
\nThis is a part of the SEO plugin setup you can\u2019t ignore. Specifically, within this SEO plugin, pay attention to the following:<\/p>\n\n
\nYou likely won\u2019t need the Redirection or Keyword Linking tools when your site is brand new, so let\u2019s skip over this for now. Just know that you have an easy means for setting up redirects and automatically building link structure on your site for when you want to use them.<\/p>\nStep 7: Infuse Content with Keywords<\/h3>\n
![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Answer-the-Public.png\")
<\/div>\n![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Edit-Metadata.png\")
<\/div>\n\n
![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Verify-Metadata.png\")
<\/div>\n
\nWhile the work you did on Permalinks earlier will automatically generate a URL based on the title of your page, you should always edit the \u201cslug\u201d. This will help give your URLs a cleaner appearance and ensure that you\u2019ve included your focus keyword in here.<\/p>\n![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Edit-Slug.png\")
<\/div>\n
\nAs I mentioned before, you don\u2019t want to overdo it. Placing the focus keyword too frequently into the content will make it unreadable.<\/p>\n![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Optimize-Content.png\")
<\/div>\n\n
h2<\/code>, h3<\/code>, etc.<\/li>\nStep 8: Optimize Your Visuals<\/h3>\n
![\"Smush](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/smush-banner-1050x338.png\")
<\/a>\n
Step 9: Create a Linking Structure for Your Site<\/h3>\n
Step 10: Install a Performance Plugin<\/h3>\n
![\"Hummingbird\"](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/hummingbird-banner-1050x339.png\")
<\/a>Step 11: Install a Security Plugin<\/h3>\n
![\"Defender](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/defender-plugin-banner-1050x343.png\")
<\/a>Step 12: Set up Google Search Console<\/h3>\n
![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Google-Search-Console.png\")
<\/div>\n![\"Post](\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Fetch-as-Google.png\")
<\/div>\nStep 13: Run an SEO Scan<\/h3>\n
Step 14: Test Your Keyword Ranking<\/h3>\n