WordPress, a content management system (CMS), is one of the best tools to showcase business products and services on the web.
It is an SEO-friendly platform that comprises powerful features to help rank the website on top results.
All you need to do is use the right SEO tactics to uplift the website performance and grow traffic.
We have jotted down some of the best SEO best practices one must adhere to for improving performance and growing business online.
Invest in Reliable Hosting Provider
Having a high-quality hosting provider is paramount if you want to deliver good site performance and secure a website from online threats and cyber-attacks.
The site speed, technical support, uptime, and website security are key reasons to keep in mind when choosing a hosting provider.
Remember, a visitor takes only a few minutes to analyze and determine if they wish to continue with your website or switch to a competitor.
Having poor site speed, uptime, or security vulnerabilities can impact the site’s SEO performance.
Thus, do not fall for the cheap options. Instead, look for a few WordPress hosting providers if you are a beginner.
Activate a WordPress SEO Plugin
WordPress is a top choice for most companies when it comes to SEO. Also, it provides users with a wide range of free and paid plugins to choose from and optimize the site.
Most SEO freelancers recommend installing Yoast SEO or All in One SEO pack to make it easier for you to optimize the website. Open the Dashboard and click on Plugins from the admin panel.
Plugins > Add New > Search Yoast SEO or All in One SEO Pack > Click on Install and Activate.
Yoast SEO is a popular on-page SEO plugin with basic settings and advanced features.
These features enable users to optimize the website as per SEO guidelines and improve site performance.
Work on the Site’s Visibility
WordPress has an option to disallow search engines from indexing the website. This implies that the website will not rank or appear in the search results.
The developers, in most cases, enable this setting while the website is in the development process. The purpose is to stop the search crawlers from fetching and indexing any webpage or content unless the site is ready.
To check if your website is getting indexed or not, go to Settings > Reading.
Make sure to untick the checkbox under the heading state search engine visibility.
Google Search Console Verification and Sitemap Submission
Google Search Console was formerly known as Google Webmaster Tool, one of the best tools to monitor websites, keep an eye on security issues, and crawl the website. It is a must to get your website verified with Google Search Console.
It helps in smooth functioning and enables search engine crawlers to automatically update any changes made to the site.
There are different ways to verify your website with the console. Once verified, submit your sitemap.
A sitemap is a file that comprises all information about the web pages, videos, categories, posts, and other files present on the site.
When you submit a sitemap, crawlers get clear information on the vital pages and files on the website.
Perform Keyword Research
If you don’t know which search term will help grow your business online or bring more traffic to the website, there is no point in doing SEO.
You must perform keyword research and accordingly optimize the website.
In fact, when starting with SEO practices, keyword research should be the first step.
In fact, we recommend using Keyword Planner or other free tools available online to discover good traffic-oriented search terms for optimizing the website and growing business online.
Keywords with good search volume help bring in more traffic, and chances of lead generation are high.
Add Quality Content to the Website
Content plays a key role as it helps convey your message to the readers and educate them about your products and services.
With great content, you can improve website engagement and performance.
Helpful Suggestion from Aaddress
“Make sure to add targeted keywords, long-tail search terms, and LSI keywords to improve the content quality.”
If you have installed Yoast SEO plugin on the website, you can also check the recommendations for each page and optimize accordingly.
It is essential to optimize the content and its structure in a search-engine-friendly way to ranker faster on Google, and improve user engagement.
Do Not Miss on Adding Unique Title Tags and Meta Descriptions
Title tags and meta descriptions are the first things that catch the user’s attention.
Users and search engines get an update about the content of the page through these tags. It is one of the key ranking factors in SEO.
Thus, make sure to create unique and keyword-enriched title tags and meta descriptions for each page on the site.
Conclusion
No Doubt! WordPress is one of the popular and SEO-friendly CMS available online.
It comprises various functionalities that other simpler platforms fail to offer. Thus, an ideal option for most companies.
Also, WordPress is free and provides a large number of plugins for the smooth functioning of a website.
If you run a WordPress website and want to rank on top search results, follow some of the above-listed SEO tactics to optimize and outrank your competitors.
