If you want to increase the ranking of your WordPress website in search engines, of course, you need to know how to do WordPress SEO optimization.
There are many ways to optimize WordPress SEO. Examples include doing keyword research, creating quality content, and much more.
In the midst of the many existing WordPress SEO optimization options, of course, you need to focus on the things you need to do first. Below we have prepared some powerful tips to improve WordPress SEO in search engines.
How to Build a Proper WordPress SEO Foundation
Before carrying out various SEO optimization practices on a WordPress website, there are a number of things you need to prepare. Here are some of them:
1. Choose the Best Domain and Hosting Provider
It is important that you know, the quality of hosting and domain providers determines the ease of managing website search engine optimization. So, don’t just choose a hosting and domain provider if you want your website to rank well in search engines.
In choosing a hosting and domain provider, consider these things:
- High uptime guarantee. The higher the uptime, the less likely the website is down.
- Ease of use. Choose WordPress hosting that is easy to manage so that WordPress SEO optimization is more practical.
- Security guarantee. Make sure the hosting has a tight layer of security so that hosting is not easily attacked by malware or other cybercrimes.
- Technical support is available 24 hours non-stop. So that when the website is constrained, help from the hosting provider can come immediately and the problem is handled.
Luckily, Hostinger provides WordPress hosting that answers all of the above considerations. Yep, WordPress Hosting!
The advantage of WordPress Hosting from Hostinger is that it is designed to facilitate WordPress management and optimize website performance. So, you can manage your WordPress website more practically.
2. Install SSL
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is a protocol for securing the flow of information on websites. Such as login information and other sensitive data.
A sign that the website has installed SSL is that the site will change from HTTP to HTTPS, and is marked with a padlock icon next to the website in the address bar.
So, what does SSL have to do with improving WordPress SEO?
Google said that HTTPS is a protocol that also determines website ranking on search engines. So if you want your website to be able to compete with search engines, use HTTPS.
Also Read: How to Install SSL on Hosting
3. Instal Plugin SEO WordPress
The most important thing you need to do to improve SEO on WordPress is to install the best WordPress SEO plugins to make managing your website more efficient. For example, the Yoast SEO plugin.
Installing an SEO plugin will make it easier for you to make search engine optimization efforts on your website. Because the SEO plugin provides an overview of what you have to do to make the website more SEO-friendly.
WordPress SEO Practices Within Content
How do you write good articles for WordPress SEO? Let’s look at various ways to optimize quality content below!
1. Do Keyword Research
Keywords are one of the factors considered by Google in determining the ranking of articles on search results pages. Therefore, you need to do keyword research so that WordPress SEO is optimal.
Apart from research, you can also find out the right words about what keywords should be used in the article.
You can use keyword tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Google Keyword Planner for research and determine the right keywords.
If your content is in Indonesian, we suggest you use Ahrefs or Google Keyword Planner.
Also Read: Learn Digital Marketing
2. Gunakan Tag Header (H1, H2, H3)
Google’s crawler will check HTML header tags like H1, H2, H3, and so on to determine the level of relevance of your content. Generally, in an article, there is one H1 tag and several H2 and H3 tags in it.
For the H1 tag on WordPress, by default, it is in the title of the article and that tag must contain keywords. In addition to the title, keywords must also be in the subtitle, namely the H2 or H3 tags, which can be keywords or variations of long tail keywords.
But keep in mind, your content is for visitors, so make content with sentences that are easy to understand.
Also Read: 11 Easy Tips to Improve the Quality of Your Content
3. Add Keywords in the First Paragraph
Please add keywords in the first paragraph, if possible. This is because Google will crawl starting from the first paragraph.
If you are using the Yoast SEO plugin, if you haven’t added keywords in the first paragraph there will be a notification, as shown in the image below with a red flag.
4. Add Internal Links
To improve the SEO of an article, you also need to add internal links. Internal links are links that point to other articles on your website.
Internal links themselves are useful for helping visitors read relevant articles on your website, so they can increase their time visiting your website. In addition, the information on your website is more structured.
It is recommended to add 3-5 internal links for each post. But if your content has a lot of words, you can add more.
To add internal links, please block words or sentences, then click the chain icon and type the keywords of the destination article, then press enter.
5. Optimize Permalinks
By default, WordPress generates a fairly long permalink structure. The default structure is the date as well as the URL name.
By default, WordPress generates a fairly long permalink structure. The default structure is the date as well as the URL name. For example, as shown below.
https://xanderblog.com/2017/08/10/plugins
However, the permalink favored by Google contains a title or keyword. Then, a shorter permalink will provide even better performance.
You can change permalinks through the WordPress dashboard. Please select the Settings menu > Permalinks. Then select the Post name radio button and click the Save Changes button to save changes.
Remember, if your post is online and you make changes to the permalink when you have already shared the post on social media, you can be sure that the post cannot be accessed.
Therefore, make sure to redirect old post URLs to posts with new permalinks so that visitors can still visit easily. You can use a plugin called Change Permalink Helper.
6. Determine the SEO Title
The SEO title is the page title that appears in Google search results. Unlike the usual title, the SEO title is intended to optimize articles for search engines.
If you use Yoast SEO, you can enter it in the SEO Title column.
We recommend putting keywords at the beginning of the title tag.
For example, if the keyword is SEO WordPress, you can use the title “SEO WordPress for Your Website.
Watch carefully. We put the keyword ‘WordPress SEO’ at the beginning of the title tag as part of this optimization step.
Keep in mind, the maximum number of title tag characters that can be displayed in search results is 65 characters. Apart from affecting SEO, title tags also affect the Click Through Rate, so make it something that attracts attention.
You can experiment with A/B testing titles, to see which titles have the highest CTR. To do this, you can use the help of plugins such as Title Experiments and Nelio AB Testing.
7. Define Meta Description
The meta description is a brief description of your article. This element also affects WordPress SEO performance. Because the meta description is able to attract more clicks from visitors.
The more people click on your content, Google has potential to see the relevance of your content is quite high. So this will affect WordPress SEO on Google and it is very likely that your website will be able to appear in the top search engine results.
Also Read: Kwon What Is Off-Page SEO And The Best Off-Page SEO Practices To Follow
WordPress SEO Practices on Images (Image SEO)
Next up, WordPress SEO on images aka Image SEO. Images are an important element for improving WordPress SEO but are often overlooked. In fact, images can be strategic places so that WordPress SEO is more optimal.
Let’s take a look at some of the easiest image SEO techniques for you!
1. Name the image file
Add a name to the image file of your content that is relevant to your content. For example, if your image file name is DCF001.JPG, replace it with seo-wordpress. JPG.
Also use a separator in the form of a dash, for example, seo-wordpress.JPG, so that it can be read by Google in the form of two words.
If possible, add keywords to your image file name, it can be added to the featured image of your content.
Also read: Free WordPress Templates
2. Fill in the Title Text on the Image
The title text itself has no effect on WordPress SEO, but it will add to the user experience. When the mouse hovers over the image, the title text of the image will appear. Thus, the image will be easier to identify.
3. Fill in the Alt Text on the Picture
ALT tags are used by to determine how relevant the image is to the content created. So it is quite important to add Alt tags to every image on your website.
After that please enter a description of the image. If possible enter keywords from your content, as long as there is a relationship between the image and the content.
WordPress SEO Practices from a Technical Side
In order to optimize WordPress SEO, you also need to pay attention to the configuration of the website. That way, your site will have a good structure to increase ranking in search engines.
1. Create an XML sitemap
An XML sitemap can make it easier for search engines to index your website.
2. Perform Bing and Google Webmaster Verification
Please verify your website to Bing and Google Webmaster, to do this you can follow the tutorial on how to verify WordPress on Bing Webmaster and how to verify Google Webmaster Tools.
3. Build Backlinks
Currently, backlinks are a factor that is still quite important for a website to increase ranking so that it is easy to compete in search results. To build quality backlinks, it is advisable to link directly from high-ranking website articles to your website.
There are several ways to get direct links from other people’s website articles, one of which is by offering your article to be published on their website. Of course, accompanied by a link that leads to your article or website.
So, those were various WordPress SEO tips that you can apply. Very complete, right?
Let’s Improve Your WordPress Website SEO!
Up here, you have learned the easiest WordPress SEO for your website. As a reminder, let’s take another look at the WordPress SEO method that you learned above:
- Choose the best hosting and domain provider
- Install SSL
- Instal plugin SEO WordPress
- Do keyword research
- Use header tags
- Add keywords in the first paragraph
- Add internal links
- Optimize permalinks
- Define SEO Titles
- Define meta descriptions
- Name the image file
- Fill in the title text on the picture
- Fill in the alt text on the picture
- Create an XML sitemap
- Verify Bing and Google Webmaster
- Build Backlinks
Well, the sixteen ways that we present this time are just some of them. Even though it’s only part of it, the tips above are essential, so you need to put them first before you apply other methods.
