Best Ways To Enhance SEO On Your WordPress Website

To understand what is SEO and how it works, you need to get a better idea of what your platform, WordPress, is like. Indeed, the best ways how to improve SEO on WordPress and how to use SEO for better website performance are very similar. Without further ado, here are the seven best ways to enhance SEO on your WordPress website.

#1 Customize Your Theme

The first thing you need to make sure is in place is your theme. If you are just creating your website, then you need to check that the theme you have chosen is optimized for search engines. However, if you already have a complete website and want to improve it, you will need to work on your chosen theme by customizing some of its aspects to enhance it. Here are some tips on how you can do this:

• Check if the theme lets you tag headings. If so, use these tagging options in your articles because they will show Google that your content is formatted properly. At the same time, your article could appear as a Google snippet at the top of the results if you have a list within it that is properly tagged.
• Check how your theme was developed and see if the code is clean. This could impact your SERPs results.
• Test your website for loading speed and run a checkup with a third-party tool to identify certain elements in your layout that could be preventing your website from loading faster. Then, consider removing or replacing these elements – or maybe customizing them in some way, at least.

#2 Use A Dedicated SEO Plugin

Plugins could make or break your website. If you use too many plugins, they could be contradicting each other’s programming or reducing your website loading speed. In addition to that, outdated or poorly built plugins provide an easy way for hackers to find a weak spot in your website and launch their attack. On the other hand, finding a good plugin or two could significantly improve the performance of your website.

For instance, there are dedicated SEO plugins that are meant to help you improve your site’s search engine optimization or provide you with the tools to do it yourself. Some plugins let you create a sitemap that helps search engines crawl your website and index it more accurately. Other plugins add features to your website to improve your customer experience. But what you should be really looking for is a plugin that will give you precise analytics.

A plugin that monitors the performance of your website, separate pages, and pieces of content will become your best friend because it will tell you exactly what isn’t working right and needs improvement. Once you have the necessary data on your hands, you can analyze it to locate virtually any issue that your site could be experiencing.

#3 Conduct Proper Keyword Research

Many website owners and content creators make the mistake of using keywords that they “think” are the ones they should be using in certain pieces of content. However, this is the wrong approach. What you should really dedicate your time to is conducting proper keyword research that will be the best indicator of the words and phrases that are most suitable for every piece of content you decide to publish on your website.

There are several ways you could do keyword research. Firstly, you could get in touch with an expert in your field and ask them all the questions you could have. Such people usually possess the necessary knowledge to aid you with such things. Some might even compile a list of keywords for you. But you could also choose one of the two other options.

Hiring a remote freelance writer from a writing services review site like Best Writers Online will ensure that you are still getting a professional to work on the matter and you are getting a comprehensive report with all the keyword-related information you need. Alternatively, you could do the research yourself. After all, there are dozens of online tools that could help you with this.

#4 Change Your Permalink Structure

The domain you choose for your website and how you decide to call your website is very important for the success of your site. What some people forget is that the home page is not the only page users will be accessing. All the other pages on your website will also be viewed – and your responsibility is to ensure that the URLs of these pages are just as perfect as your home page (or domain) URL.

One way to do this is by customizing your URLs every time you create a new page. This way, you will be sure that the URLs are entirely accurate. Another way to do this is by changing your permalink structure and then customizing the URLs but to a much lesser extent. The thing is that once you change your permalink structure, the process of URL customization will be partly automated already – you will simply need to add minor changes.

In your settings, you can choose from several options of permalink structure (e.g. “numeric” or “plain”). The best option is probably the one for “post name” as it will contain your page/post name in its original form with all the keyword you used. Or you could choose the option of “custom structure” because it gives you more flexibility.

#5 Write Longer Article and Posts

Though the attention span of most users is not that long, search engines still tend to favor longer pieces of content which is why so many content creators, bloggers, and website owners are constantly putting out articles that are 1000, 2000, or even 3000+ words long. Logically, if you want to enhance your search engine optimization and get higher places in search results, you need to write longer articles and posts.

If you don’t have the time to do this, you could always hire a remote writer from an essay writing review site like Online Writers Rating who will be creating these articles for you. Having a skilled writer with the right experience will always be better than trying to do something yourself if you don’t have a lot of experience in this sphere.

That being said, you need to remember that quality should always be chosen over quantity. If you keep publishing long articles with little to no substance, no keywords or wrong keywords, and absurd topics, you will quickly notice that they don’t rank at all and nobody reads them. But if you treat the matter of quality seriously, you will realize that your articles are even being shared giving you more exposure.

#6 Build A Nuanced Link Profile

A link profile might be on your mind, but it is actually a fundamental part of a successful website. Building a nuanced link profile that contains both external and internal links that are relevant to the content and the readers is one of the best things you can do in terms of search engine optimization. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Try to attach the links to the words or phrases (aka anchor text) that are relevant to the topic covered in the article you are linking to.
• Make sure your link settings are customized to make the links stand out from your text and then change their color once the user has clicked on them.
• Always include both internal and external links in your content. Internal links help with navigation and provide your readers with additional resources to check out. External links validate your claims and show search engines your connections to other reputable websites.

#7 Optimize Your Visual Content

Last but not least, think about your visual content. Though it may be tempting to concentrate all of your attention on your text, visual content also requires some optimization. Here are some things you should do:

• Add the right titles to your images and videos. Just like with your article titles, try to use keywords in them.
• Add alt tags to your images. And don’t forget about meta tags and meta descriptions for your pages!
• Turn on the sharing options for your content (both your articles and separate pieces of visual content like images and videos). You can also allow embedding for your videos.
• Be consistent with your visual content. If you have used a particular image as the cover image of one of your articles, make sure to use this same image when promoting your article on social media. By the way, promoting your content on social media platforms can help you generate more traffic to your website.
• Keep the quality of your visual content in mind. Just like with articles and posts, it is very important for the performance of your images and videos.

Final Thoughts

To sum up, by using the SEO WordPress tips presented in this article you will be able to enhance your website and start getting better results from your actions. Don’t miss this chance to become a better website manager and start working on your technique.