How to Optimize Your WordPress Site
WordPress is the simplest, most popular way to create a website. They power over 40% of sites on the internet. When using a WordPress site though, it’s just as important to focus on search engine optimization as you would with any site. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a strategy that is used to gain higher rankings in search engines and increase traffic to your site. But how do you optimize your WordPress SEO?
Choosing Your Hosting Provider
When choosing your hosting provider, you want to make sure that they are reliable, as this can affect your site speed, security, and many more vital pieces to your success. WordPress itself recommends using one of three hosting providers:
There are many others you can use, so make sure to find the one that works best for your company.
Plugins
Plugins are pieces of your software that you can add to your site to help with the functionality. You’ll want to install an SEO plugin to ensure you have full control over the optimation of your site. These plugins won’t do the work for you, but they’ll make it much easier for you to optimize your site the best you can.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is one of the best SEO plugins out there. This plugin is the one we use here at Small Hits and the one we recommend most. It gives you things like page and keyword analysis, allows you to edit meta descriptions, create XML sitemaps automatically, and much more.
Imagify
Imagify is our favorite plugin to use for image optimization. Placing images on your site creates a better user experience but it can also slow down your site. Imagify compresses the images so you can still add them to your site, without losing site speed. The quality remains while the weight reduces so you never have to worry about what your images will look like or how they will affect your site.
SEOPressor
SEOPressor is a great plugin to use for your WordPress site. It gives you maxim clarity with your site and offers a multitude of customization and optimization options. It’s extremely easy to use and highly recommended. With everything in one place, you don’t have to go looking for information and are able to keep your site healthy and the best it can be.
WP Rocket
WP Rocket is one of the most powerful web performance plugins you can use. You are able to reduce your load time, boost your page speed, and increase your Core Web Vitals score with just a few clicks. It’s super easy to use and has wonderful support if you get lost. And with its excellent compatibility, it is easy to apply it to the most popular themes and works with the top managed WordPress hosting providers.
Site Kit by Google
Site Kit by Google is Google’s official WordPress plugin. With it, you are able to see how people find your site, how they use it, and how to improve. Since it’s made directly from Google, you are easily able to configure key Google products with up-to-date advice on how to be successful. With its easy set-up and snapshots when your efforts are successful, you are able to keep reaching your goals.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool by Google that allows you to track your site performance. This helps you understand how Google sees your site. It also can give you an insight into your core web vitals.
It gives you reports and data about your site and how it appears. You are able to see things like the search terms people are finding your site with, how each page looks in the search results, and how often people click on your pages. It can also let you know when web crawlers are unable to access your site or if there’s any duplicate content found.
Blog Posts
Optimizing your blog posts on your site can be crucial to your success. With 70-80% of internet users reading blog posts you could be missing potential clients by not having your posts optimized.
Keywords
Having a keyword that is the main focus of a page lets the search engine know what is the main topic. It allows you to keep focus, as well, so that you aren’t all over the place when writing. Your keyword should be in your title and somewhere in the first paragraph of your post. You can use keyword research to figure out which topics will get you the most engagement.
Title Tags
Google uses title tags to understand what each page of your site is about. It’s best to use your keyword in the title tag so you can rank easier. You need to make sure that it is natural and not forced, however, and it’s best to keep them between 55-60 characters.
Heading Tags
Heading tags are section headings that give context to what your page is about. Usually, you would only have one H1 tag, but you can use H2 through H6 tags to help break down your content. Tags should only be used to make the text easier to follow, not to try to stuff extra keywords in your writing. Keyword stuffing can actually lower your search ranking and be harmful to your success.
Meta Descriptions
Meta descriptions help entice people to click on your site over another and are the descriptions that show up under your title in the search results. These should be as close to 160 characters as possible (without going over) and include the focus keyword. If you don’t add a meta description, Google will create one for you, which is usually going to be the first few lines of the page.
Linking
Linking can be a huge help to your site’s success and can be internal, external, or backlinks.
Internal Links
Internal links are links that connect to the other pages of your website. These pages have more information about the topic you are talking about and can be other blog posts or a contact us page for example. It’s important to make sure the links make sense with what the post is about and to choose anchor texts (words chosen for the link that describe what you are linking to) that make sense.
External Links
External links are links to other sites that are talking about the same topics you are. It’s recommended to use at least two within your post. When choosing sites to link to make sure that they are high domain authority. Google ranks those sites with high domain authority links higher because they know they are trusted and have the correct information. Not only can it build your authority with Google and its users, but it can also build your relationship and engagement with other companies.
Backlinks
Backlinks are links on another site that link to a page from your website. These help boost your engagement and authority by showing that other companies trust you as a source of information and they see you as an expert in your field.
Images
When choosing images, you want to make sure that they are high-quality images. Having low-quality images can deter customers from your site. You also want to make sure that the images aren’t too big as well because that will affect your site speed.
Alt Text
Alt-text is used to describe what the image is about. This text is used for screen readers for people who are visually impaired and by search engines to know what the image is about. It’s important that you make sure that the text used describes the exact image. Some people stuff this text with keywords, however, that will confuse the search engine and tell Google that something is wrong and will actually lower your search ranking.
Local SEO
Local SEO allows your business to show up in local searches through a search engine. If a customer searches for a “coffee shop near me” and you aren’t set up through local SEO, there’s a lower chance of your business being found. You can set up Google My Business or Bing Places to be able to show up in local search results.
Now that you know some of the elements of improving your WordPress SEO, your business can take off and give you the financial freedom and safety you want. But what if you’re still unsure about what to do? You can always contact a digital marketing agency, like us here at Small Hits, to help you. Having these changes can increase your site performance and bring in many more clients. So why not start today?