SEO Tips for WordPress - MGR Blog

It doesn’t matter if your website has jaw-dropping design and that it features amazing content. If it’s not being found by search engines, then you’re not getting any qualified traffic. And if it’s not getting any qualified traffic, then it might as well not exist.

One of the best ways to “exist” on the Web is to improve your website so your business gets more exposure on search engine results — from Bing to Google. The more exposure you get, the better search rankings you will achieve. This will inevitably increase your traffic. WordPress makes it easy to have a website that with a bit of work and some strategic tweaking, it can also be optimized for search engines.

MGR Consulting Group provides a team of true WordPress Expert Developers. The difference between an average (and free) WordPress website or blog and a custom developed WordPress website could be several thousand dollars in lost revenue per month. How about making sure that your WordPress website is also Search Engine friendly?

Here are eight essential SEO tips for WordPress sites that our team applies on a regular basis to our clients’ websites.

Use the right keywords and use them strategically.

Try to use long-tail keywords. Be specific as possible to the market you are targeting. But don’t just “throw” them in haphazardly in your content.

Use targeted, long-tail keywords in the most natural manner, on well-written, engaging, and informative content. And, it goes without saying, produce original pieces — from articles to videos to infographics. Copied content can ruin your reputation, which in turn will affect site traffic.

Optimize title tags and meta description.

On-page SEO elements like title tags and meta descriptions can create clickable opportunities. Keep them relevant and intriguing. Ideally, you’ll want to have your keywords at the beginning of your page title. Search engines put more weight on early words and your users are more likely to click when the keywords are at the start of the page title.

Add a blog to your website — and update regularly.

Blogging can have a tremendously good impact on your SEO results. If you use guest bloggers (i.e., experts in their industries), your website is bound to get more traffic, which then boosts your search ranking. Know that companies with a business blog have increased their traffic to 55 percent more than companies that do not have one.

Quality blogging also provides your website with fresh content, which improves your position in the market or industry as somewhat of an authority or good source. Just one note. Make sure that your blog’s root URL is the same as your main website. (i.e. www.yourwebsite.com/blog) so that your blog articles also contribute to improve your domain authority.

Never just rely on plugins that enable SEO.

SEO plugins are helpful in making your WordPress site more SEO-friendly. But once installed, it doesn’t automatically optimize your site. It simply sets up the site with SEO tools so you can optimize it. In other words, just because you install an “SEO Plugin” that doesn’t mean that your website will be optimized for Search Engines unless you join an ongoing SEO Program or agency to do that for you. Remember, SEO is always work in progress, not a “set it and forget it” exercise.

Make sure your website can be viewed across all devices and all browsers.

In other words, use Responsive Design. With the increasing number of mobile users, your website cannot afford to lose valuable traffic. An optimized website is also a responsive website. I’ve discussed responsive design several times in the past so I won’t expand much more here. If you still use a different website for desktop and mobile, it’s time for you to update. Give your users a consistent experience on all devices, from desktop computers to wearable devices. A clean and minimalist design with modern fonts and easy navigation is all you need. No excuse to keep your old site. This is one of those situations when standing still will really cause you to go backwards.

Deliver great user experience.

If your visitors like your website, so will search engines. In order to provide a great user experience, your website needs to have a solid, logical structure. Information has to be organized in a way that makes sense; your URL structure should follow site hierarchy, and you need to develop an internal linking structure. Create engaging and valuable content. High-quality content can create dramatic results for your search ranking.

Make sure your website loads fast.

Forty percent of website visitors will leave a website if it takes more than three seconds to load. Site load speed can affect traffic, and with it, conversion rates. No one likes slow websites. Not you—and not your users. So why settle for a WordPress site that takes its sweet time loading? Speed has an impact on your search engine ranking. Apart from using themes that make loading times better, like Genesis, you may want to install plugins that boost speed. Plugins such as W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache are worth looking into.

Yet, despite all the available plugins, nothing beats using a host that utilizes servers especially optimized for WordPress like our Team at MGR does.

Change your permalink structure.

The default permalink structure on WordPress is not optimized. You will have to change it so it’s user-friendly, and therefore, search engine-friendly. The default permalink is not exactly ideal for users: http:mywordpressrocks.com/?p=N

If you need help with your WordPress website or simply making sure that your business is ranked properly on Google and other search engines, feel free to reach out to our Team. We even have a very low priced MGR Website Analysis in place to let you know what your websites weakest points are even BEFORE you sign up for any of our programs.

If you need assistance with your website design or maintenance, our MGR Website Design Team is here to help.  Feel free to contact us and we’ll be glad to answer any questions.

Thank you for reading. Until next time, this is Manuel Gil del Real (MGR)