SEO Tips Every WordPress Site Manager Needs to Know

If you’re like most WordPress website managers, you’re tasked with creating and managing dozens, if not hundreds, of individual webpages. But getting each of these pages to rank for a search term on Google can be challenging. That’s why we’ve created a checklist when it comes to optimized WordPress pages for search engines like Google. Use these SEO tips to help your readers and customers find your website on Google.

Keyword Research

Coming up with random search terms related to your business won’t help you win any points when it comes to SEO. You need to carefully research your search terms to make sure that people are actually searching for these terms online. Some terms will be too competitive for your website to tackle, but you can use keyword research tools like SEMrush and AdWords Keyword Planner to find less competitive terms for your business that will help you connect with new readers and customers.

Checking Your Competitors

Don’t forget to check your competitors’ web pages to see what keywords they’re ranking for and how they earned a top spot in the search results on Google. Typically, what separates a high-ranking page from a low-ranking page is the number of backlinks going to that page. Backlinks show Google that a webpage has value. If some of your competitors are out ranking you, see how many backlinks they have and from what sites. This will help you build your own backlinking strategy.

Putting Your Keywords to Work

Once you have some keywords to work with, it’s time to enter them throughout your WordPress website. You need to do the following when adding new webpages to your site and updating existing pages:

• Add the keyword to the URL

This helps Google recognize what the webpage is all about. Be careful when changing the URL for older pages, especially if you have links to this URL on other pages.

• Add the keyword to the meta description

Your meta description should be less than 300 characters. Add the keyword while still creating a compelling description.

• Add the keyword to the Title Tag and H tags

The title of the page should contain the keyword. Try to use the same keyword in at least one other H tag throughout the page. These tags also help you break up large sections of text.

Adding Content to Every URL

Even if you’re not writing a blog post, every webpage should still have at least 100 words of text, if not closer to 400. Without this crawlable text, Google won’t be able to make head or tails of your webpage. You should also use as many synonyms for your keywords as you can. You shouldn’t stuff your web pages with your chosen keyword, but you can give Google more context by using words or phrases that are similar.

If you’re having trouble optimizing your WordPress website for Google, contact the professionals at Redwood Valley Technical Solutions. Sign up for custom WordPress website design services today and let us help you take your website to the next level.