I decided to add this as the number one in the list since if you are not using an SEO friendly theme, it will be difficult if not impossible to improve your rankings.<\/p>\n
From experience, a lot of people either don\u2019t know what to look for in a WordPress theme so that it\u2019s search engine friendly or they just ignore this altogether and this is a big mistake.<\/p>\n
![\"WordPress](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/wordpress-best-seo-practices.png\")
How do you select an SEO friendly theme?<\/h3>\nA good WordPress theme has the following features:<\/p>\n
It\u2019s mobile friendly <\/strong>\u2013 Having a mobile friendly website is a must and if your WordPress theme is not responsive then this is a very good opportunity to consider doing a website redesign.<\/p>\n
There are many reasons why this matters.<\/p>\n
For starters, Google introduced mobile friendliness as a ranking signal in 2013 and this means that if your website is not optimized for mobile, then you are missing out on the 50% of potential traffic that is navigating the web on mobile.<\/p>\n
Second, you are not taking advantage of the many benefits<\/strong><\/a> a responsive design has to offer to online business and this can have a negative impact on your conversion rates and sales.<\/p>\n
![\"rich](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/google-rich-snippets.png\")
If your theme does not have schema information built-in, then you will either need to hire a developer to do these changes for you or make use of a third party plugin.<\/p>\n
You can still get it to work but it\u2019s much better if structured data is natively supported by the theme.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s developer friendly<\/strong> \u2013 A WordPress website is never static. There will be cases in the lifetime of a website where you will have to make changes to the underlying code.<\/p>\n
Good WordPress themes have hooks and filters that help developers perform changes fast and in an efficient manner.<\/p>\n
Usually this is achieved through the use of a framework (read more details below), which is the intermediate layer between WordPress core files and theme.<\/p>\n
It loads fast<\/strong> \u2013 Everybody likes a fast loading website. Google rewards fast websites by giving them a small ranking boost and users are more likely to interact and revisit a website that loads without delays.<\/p>\n
While there are many techniques to improve the loading speed of a WordPress website<\/strong><\/a>, if your theme is not designed with speed in mind, it will be very difficult to achieve loading speeds in the range of 2-4 seconds.<\/p>\n
On-page SEO optimized<\/strong> \u2013 I have discussed about on-page SEO<\/strong><\/a> many times in the past but when it comes to choosing a WordPress theme, your primary concern is to make sure that it is compatible with basic on-page SEO concepts like:<\/p>\n
- \n
- The use of a single H1 tag per page.<\/li>\n
- The proper output of ALT tags for images.<\/li>\n
- The proper output of page titles and descriptions.<\/li>\n
- The correct use of canonical URLS and many more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Pro Tip:<\/strong> Have a look at my previous post on how to SEO audit your website<\/strong><\/a> and make sure that your chosen theme adheres to those guidelines.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Recommended WordPress themes and frameworks to use<\/h3>\n
Over the years I had the opportunity to work with a number of different WordPress themes and frameworks but when it comes to my own websites or websites we develop for our clients, we always go with\u00a0studio press themes<\/strong><\/a> that are based on the powerful Genesis framework.<\/em><\/p>\n
The website you are reading now is based on the genesis framework<\/em> and also a number of the most popular websites on the Internet run by SEO experts<\/strong><\/a> are based on Genesis<\/em>.<\/p>\n
2. Select an SEO Friendly Hosting Provider<\/h2>\n
Next on the list is SEO friendly hosting<\/strong><\/a>. Many times hosting providers can indirectly affect your SEO efforts, without realizing it.<\/p>\n
There are a number of good hosting providers<\/strong><\/a> out there so I won\u2019t make a specific recommendation besides mentioning that WordPress runs better on a VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting compared to shared hosting.<\/p>\n
If you are serious about your blog or online business, then VPS hosting is your only choice.<\/p>\n
3. Make Sure your Website is Secured<\/h2>\n
How is WordPress security related to SEO? Websites that don\u2019t have strong protection get hacked and they are loaded with malicious code which adds outgoing links to \u2018bad reputation\u2019 websites.<\/p>\n
In many cases the owner of the website doesn\u2019t have a clue that this is happening, hackers use clever ways to hack into a website and add the code that is visible under certain conditions.<\/p>\n
The result? Your rankings drop and your website is removed from Google search until you take action to clean the malware and submit a reconsideration request.<\/p>\n
If you experienced this once, you know how frustrating it is especially if your income depends on your website.<\/p>\n
When it comes to security, \u2018prevention is always better than cure<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n
I have previously written a guide on how to protect your WordPress website<\/strong><\/a> and if this is something you haven\u2019t considered yet, I suggest you take a break from SEO and deal with this first.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
4. Check your Technical SEO<\/h2>\n
Now that we have dealt with the above important tasks that indirectly affect your SEO, we can start working on things that have a direct impact on rankings and traffic.<\/p>\n
First in the list is technical SEO<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n
For best practices, you need to check the following:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Can search engines access your website or is your robots.txt blocking them?<\/li>\n
- Is your XML Sitemap optimized<\/strong><\/a> and submitted to Google and Bing?<\/li>\n
- Did you set a preferred domain in WordPress and Google Search Console?<\/li>\n
- Do you provide users with an HTML sitemap?<\/li>\n
- Do you have a custom 404 page that is properly configured?<\/li>\n
- Do you use redirects (301, 302) correctly?<\/li>\n
- Is your website configured to handle both http:\/\/ and http:\/\/www requests?<\/li>\n
- Do you take advantage of structured data and schemas?<\/li>\n
- Are there any broken links in your content?<\/li>\n
- Are there any crawl or not found errors reported in Google search console?<\/li>\n
- Did you set the canonical URLs correctly for all the pages of your website?<\/li>\n
- Is your website mobile friendly?<\/li>\n
- Do you have a breadcrumb menu enabled and it is properly tagged?<\/li>\n
- Do you implement \u2018paging\u2019 correctly for multi page posts or pages?<\/li>\n
- If your website is available in more than one languages, is this defined correctly in your code and Google Search Console?<\/li>\n
- Does it load fast?<\/li>\n
- Do you use SSL?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Despite using the word \u2018technical\u2019, you don\u2019t have to be a technical guru to handle these issues. If this sounds too complicated for you, you can read step-by-step instructions with screenshots and annotations in my SEO Course<\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n
5. Optimize Your On page SEO<\/h2>\n
Once you finish with the technical SEO stuff, you can now concentrate on your On-page SEO. On Page SEO, as the name implies, has to do with the page (or post) and how you can optimize it better.<\/p>\n
The most important elements that need attention are:<\/p>\n
SEO Friendly Titles<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 This is perhaps the most discussed element in SEO.<\/p>\n
![\"SEO](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/seo-page-titles-example.jpg\")
Page Title Optimization Example<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n It\u2019s not keyword stuffing to try and use keywords in your title, on the contrary you make search engines (and users) job easier.<\/p>\n
What would be keyword stuffing in this example, is to use a title like this: \u201cMake money online | Make Money | Make money with AdSense<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n
Meta Description Optimization<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 The same concepts apply to the meta description of the page.<\/p>\n
H1 tag Optimization<\/a> \u2013 <\/strong>Another on-page SEO element is the H1 tag. As mentioned above, this depends on how your theme is configured. What you should do is ensure that there is only one <h1> tag on the page.<\/p>\n
Keep your internal links short and add them only when it matters.<\/p>\n
![\"SEO](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/seo-internal-links-practices.jpg\")
Internal Linking Best SEO Practices<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Outgoing links<\/strong> \u2013 It\u2019s normal to have links within your content pointing to external websites. Google interprets these links as \u2018votes of trust\u2019 and are still one of the factors affecting the ranking position of a page.<\/p>\n
The problem about links in general is that they can be manipulated. A lot of webmasters in an attempt to improve their rankings, they may contact other webmasters asking them for links either for free, for a fee or by giving them others incentives (for example, sending free products for reviews).<\/p>\n
How is this related to on-page SEO? If Google believes that the outgoing links in your page are part of a deal, your website will be penalized and your rankings and Google trust will drop.<\/p>\n
In order to avoid such a situation, you should only link out when it benefits your user and you should avoid using keyword optimized anchor texts, unless it is natural to do.<\/p>\n
Use the rel=\u201dnofollow\u201d<\/em> tag in cases where you want to reference \/ recommend \/ review other products within your content.<\/p>\n
![\"NoFollow](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/seo-no-follow-links.jpg\")
What is a NoFollow Link<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n 6. Create content that satisfies the user intent<\/h2>\n
Although content is part of the on-page SEO process, I added it as a separate section so that it gains more importance.<\/p>\n
In the past when we were discussing about content and SEO, we concentrated on things like:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Doing keyword research to find out what users search for<\/li>\n
- Publishing articles with unique content that contained those keywords<\/li>\n
- Rinse and repeat<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Things have changed. Content SEO<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>is no longer about keywords but it\u2019s also about understanding the user intent.<\/p>\n
Google is able to understand user intent with the help of Rank Brain<\/strong><\/a> (their new automated system that is part of the ranking algorithm) and that\u2019s how they managed to keep their users happy and their reputation high.<\/p>\n
As webmasters and SEO\u2019s, we can utilize this knowledge to help us create better content.<\/p>\n
So the new refined SEO copywriting process becomes:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Perform keyword research to find out what users are searching in Google related to your niche.<\/li>\n
- For each of the candidate keywords examine carefully the results in Google search and understand the user intent.<\/li>\n
- Create content that is detailed, insightful, SEO friendly but at the same time satisfying the user intent.<\/li>\n
- Rinse and repeat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
How is content related to WordPress SEO? Even if you get the technical and on-page SEO part correct, you still cannot achieve high rankings without great content.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why it\u2019s important not to forget about the role of content when talking about rankings and SEO either using WordPress or any other platform.<\/p>\n
7. Promote your Website (Off-Page SEO)<\/h2>\n
Off page SEO<\/strong><\/a> is the last piece of the puzzle for optimizing your WordPress website.<\/p>\n
Link building:<\/strong> The most popular off-page SEO technique by far is SEO backlinks<\/strong><\/a>. It\u2019s a huge topic on it\u2019s own and something that many beginners find difficult to understand and implement.<\/p>\n
What you should understand about link building are the following:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Stay away from bad linking practices (buying links, link exchanges etc.)<\/li>\n
- Stay way from easy to get links (spam links in comments, article directories)<\/li>\n
- Stay way from links coming from low quality websites or blogs<\/li>\n
- Bad links (like those described above), are not harmless, they can actually damage your rankings and put your website into trouble (think Google Penalties).<\/li>\n
- Natural links<\/strong><\/a> are good and welcomed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
How do you get good links?<\/strong><\/p>\n
In short, the best ways to get strong links that will make a difference in rankings are:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Publish great content (see point 6 above) that is worthy of links<\/li>\n
- Position your content in front of the people that are more likely to link to it (social media is of great help in this manner)<\/li>\n
- Build connections with other bloggers in your industry and keep them updated whenever you have new content published. If the content is good and related to their business they may decide to naturally link to it.<\/li>\n
- Write superb content and get it published on reputable websites bigger than yours (guest posting).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Key Points<\/h2>\n
If you are a beginner to WordPress SEO, you need to understand that there are more than one factors that play a role in rankings.<\/p>\n
First you need to start with your website and check your WordPress theme, hosting and security.<\/p>\n
Then you need to thoroughly check your technical SEO and ensure that search engine bots can access and understand your website\u2019s content and structure.<\/p>\n
Next, you need to worry about your on-page SEO. This is the part where you can send many \u2018signals\u2019 to search engines about the meaning of your content and purpose of your page.<\/p>\n
Finally, don\u2019t for a moment forget that long term success comes through the quality of your content and how other websites on the Internet think of your website (that\u2019s off-page SEO).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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