As per reports, there are more than 1 billion websites online. Now imagine these many websites competing to get noticed and ranked.
With this level of competition, just hosting a website and posting content won’t cut the chase.
Then what will? A well-planned SEO strategy. In this blog, we will walk you through the best tips and tricks that have worked for thousands of websites in 2023.
Let’s get started.
What is SEO?
You cannot completely understand the tips to implement without having a basic understanding of SEO and why it is important.
SEO is a set of techniques or methods used to get a better ranking on Google. The aim of having an SEO strategy is to drive organic traffic to websites which can then be turned into leads.
Why is SEO important?
SEO is important for both bloggers and business owners because it helps you get visibility. Instead of paying for being put out in front of your audience with ads, you can rank organically.
SEO helps in generating higher traffic which further helps you generate revenue. Not just that a good ranking builds your credibility online. And guess what? All of these benefits are at a lower cost than advertisements.
6 Best WordPress SEO tips To Rank On Top Of SERP:
1. Install an SEO-friendly theme
Yes, most of the WordPress themes out there are already SEO-friendly, so what exactly do you need to check?
While installing a theme make sure the theme is not stuffed with unnecessary codes. Ever since Google has made page speed a ranking factor, having unnecessary code is a big no.
Find out the features that you require and go for a theme that has those features only. Installing a theme with features you never need will slow down your website.
2. Check your search engine visibility settings
Never check the Search Engine Visibility box on WordPress. Many WordPress owners have observed a decline in ranking since they checked this box. So, if you ever want to rank on Google whatsoever, don’t check this box.
What if it is already on?
- Well then go to the settings
- Click on the reading option
- From there choose the Search engine visibility
- And quickly uncheck the box.
Remember not to check it on at times when you see a traffic decline or are desperate to grow your business.
3. Make sure to generate a sitemap
You have heard about sitemaps and why they are important. So, here we will straight away head to how you can easily create sitemaps. It will help you mark important posts on your site.
You can easily do it with Yoast SEO.
1. For that head to the settings.
2. From there select the General option and features under it.
3. There you will find XML Sitemap, click on it.
You can also use the XML sitemap plugin.
1. First, install the plugin from the WordPress plugin directory.
2. Go to settings and head to XML Sitemap. The plugin automatically generates XML sitemaps for WordPress.
3. Click on the sitemap URL to see the sitemap Index.
4. To notify search engines: Settings -> XML-Sitemap->Basic Options section.
5. There you can check the first two boxes and toggle the update option.
Read: What are the Successful ERP Software Implementation Strategies?
4. Set an SEO-friendly URL slug
If you have done a few blog posts on your website, you might have observed the complete title tag as your URL slug. While there is nothing wrong with it, it certainly deprives your site of SEO benefits.
Why?
Because long URLs don’t confuse Google crawlers to understand what exactly the post is about. So, instead of using the complete URL, you can simply edit it and enter the keyword you want to rank for.
5. Minify code
Making your codes short reduces the overall file size of the code. Which indirectly improves website speed and helps you with SEO. All you need to do is remove white space from your code.
But, do you have to do it manually? Of course not! Simply install the WP Rocket and head to File Optimization settings. There you will have an option named “Minify JavaScript files.” and “Minify CSS files.”Click on them to shorten your code.
6. Optimizing Your Blog Posts for SEO
Yes, plugins do wonders for your WordPress website if used properly. But there are some tasks that you have to do manually, especially when it comes down to on-page SEO of your blogs.
On-page SEO of your blog posts involves different aspects like:
- Proper title
- Meta description within 165 characters that has a keyword.
- Keyword optimization throughout the content.
- Content Optimisation
- Image Optimisation
- Adding alt tag to images
- Internal linking
- Outbound links
- And, whatnot.
These are the basics of On-page SEO. You need to pay extra attention to all these factors to ensure proper ranking on Google.
Best WordPress SEO Plugin
Plugins in WordPress make it easy to optimize your website for SEO. Let’s have a look at the two best plugins available for WordPress.
Yoast SEO
The first and most used plugin with a 5 million active user base is Yoast SEO. Launched in 2010, this plugin is super effective and easy to use.
The plugin helps you with in-depth SEO analysis, keyword optimization, readability analysis, preview pages on Google and social media, etc.
Not only that, but their customer support is incredible. To make it even easier, they have tons of resources like FAQs, blogs, documents, and videos.
Rank Math
The tool has different optimization features which include on-page optimization like meta description, keyword density, image alt tags, etc. It also helps users with schema markup, social media integration, etc.
We love Rank Math for its reporting and tracking. You will get a detailed report on your website’s keyword ranking, traffic, and much more.
You can also integrate this plugin with Google Search Console, WooCommerce, etc. In a nutshell, you will have a plugin that does the nuts and bolts of SEO on your behalf.
Conclusion
Taking your website rank from zero to the top requires some effort and patience from your end. With the help of some basic as well as advanced SEO techniques, you can witness a spike in your ranking in just 3-6 months. Make sure you consistently pay attention to your SEO strategy for it to brew results.
Author’s Bio:
Jigar Agrawal is Digital Marketing Manager at eSparkBiz. He is passionate about anything related to Digital Marketing. Wants to unlock the world of technology and Social Media where every day there is a chance of new possibility as well as innovation.