WordPress SEO: How To Make Your Site Google-Friendly

When you’re trying to make your WordPress site search engine friendly, there’s a long list of things to do. But where should you start? This article will explain the basics of WordPress SEO and how to make sure your site is optimized properly.

The Easiest Way to Make a WordPress Blog SEO Friendly

Key Takeaways
Understand the importance of SEO for your WordPress site’s visibility.
Optimize your website’s structure, including navigation and URLs, for better search engine indexing.
Conduct keyword research and use relevant keywords naturally in your content.
Create high-quality, valuable content that addresses your target audience’s needs.
Improve your website’s user experience by ensuring it’s mobile-friendly and loads quickly.
Utilize SEO plugins to assist in optimizing your content and technical SEO aspects.
Focus on building quality backlinks to enhance your site’s authority and credibility.
Regularly update and maintain your website’s content to keep it relevant and fresh.
Monitor your site’s performance using analytics tools and make adjustments as needed.
Stay informed about the latest SEO trends and updates to adapt your strategies over time.

Get A Domain Name That Is SEO-Friendly

When choosing a domain name, keep in mind that it should be easy to remember, easy to spell and not too long or short. The last thing you want is for someone who visits your website to be unable to find it again because they forgot what the name was.

For example, if you sell shoes online and decide on the domain name “shoesareawesome.com” then you may want to rethink this decision as many people will not be able to recall what it stands for later on down the road.

If they have never heard of it before or even seen any advertisements promoting their services somewhere else on the internet beforehand; therefore making them less likely to come back after visiting initially (if ever).

The same goes with being too short: if someone types in “your company name” into Google instead of typing in “www. yournamehere” then there is no way for users who don’t know exactly how many letters are needed before hitting enter will find results even though these exact ones would exist!

So make sure there aren’t more than two words total when using an acronym such as “YOURCOMPANYNAME” instead of typing out something like “YourCompanyName.”

When it comes to optimizing your WordPress site for search engines, there’s a lot to learn. Our comprehensive guide on The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization will walk you through the fundamental concepts and strategies you need to know.

Pick An SEO-Friendly Domain Extension

You can save yourself a lot of headaches by picking a domain extension that is SEO-friendly.

Domain extensions like .info, .biz, and .us are not considered to be as search engine friendly as others like .com or .org. These domain extensions may also confuse search engines and make it difficult for them to find the correct web pages you want to rank well on.

Choose An SEO-Friendly Theme

To get started, you will need to choose an SEO-friendly theme. There are many WordPress themes available that offer considerable flexibility and customization options. However, not all of them are optimized for search engines and the users who come to your site. Here’s what you should look out for when searching for a theme:

Responsive Design

Your website must be accessible on any device that is being used by your target audience, so it’s best to find a theme with a responsive design (i.e., one that automatically adjusts its layout based on the screen size).

This way, your visitors can see your content clearly on their devices without having to zoom in or scroll horizontally across different screens.

Fast Loading Speeds

Visitors don’t want to wait around for pages or images to load; they usually leave within 10 seconds if they don’t feel like waiting around anymore!

So make sure any pages on your site have fast loading speeds by using lightweight images and reducing download times as much as possible by choosing efficient web hosting services

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Secure Hosting Platform

You can never be too careful when it comes down to protecting yourself from hackers! Make sure you choose a secure hosting platform like WP Engine where all parts of their infrastructure are encrypted using SSL certificates.

This means that any information sent between clients and servers remains private while also ensuring no one else can access those conversations because they’re encrypted before being sent over wires connecting those two parties online (or through wireless signals).

If someone tries hacking into either piece of equipment used during the transmission then both sides lose connection altogether–so hackers won’t even know where these conversations originated from until something happens inside their computers/phones etcetera.”

Install An SEO Plugin

To get the most out of your SEO plugin, it should be easy to use and regularly updated. Look for a plugin that is compatible with your theme, as well as with any other plugins you’re using.

Finally, make sure that it’s compatible with your hosting provider if you have one (most of them are).

If you’re having trouble finding a good fit among the free options available online, consider paying for premium plugins they’re often more reliable than their free counterparts because they tend to have fewer bugs and holes in their functionality.

Use Permalinks That Include Keywords

Permalinks the URL structure of your WordPress site. Permalinks should be descriptive and contain keywords that people might search for. They should also be readable, easy to remember, and unique and not contain any spaces or punctuation marks.

Short URLs are great because they don’t take up much space on the page and they can easily fit into tweets and ad headlines without breaking them up awkwardly.

You may also want to try using an acronym or a word that people will be likely to type in at the end of their searches something like [keyword + service].

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Make Your URLs As Short As Possible

To make your URLs as short as possible, you should use hyphens instead of underscores.

You also have the option of using dashes instead of underscores. Hyphens are shorter than dashes, which means that if you’re looking for a way to shorten long URLs without sacrificing SEO value, this is the way to go!

However, there are some instances where hyphens aren’t allowed in WordPress URLs:

The home page URL must contain /blog/ or it won’t work properly;
If you want to add another part after blog/, such as product-specific pages (ex: costume_accessories), then you will need to insert an underscore between the two parts like so: `https://www.example.com/blog/costume-accessories`.

Create Content That Is Helpful And Useful

You can make your site more Google-friendly by creating content that is helpful and useful.

The content you create should be relevant to the topic of your website. If you are selling used cars, for example, do not write about the history of manufacturing cars or how they work on a molecular level.

That kind of information would probably be too advanced for most people reading it. Instead, focus on writing articles that help people buying used cars learn what they need to know before making a purchase (e.g., “10 Things to Look for When Buying Your First Car”).

Your content should also be easy to read and understand. Avoid using fancy words or expressions unless there is no other way to express an idea without them;

If there is no other way to express an idea without using fancy words or expressions, then consider paraphrasing them so they’re easier for readers from all walks of life including search engines to understand!

Try not to include any sentences that are more than 100 words long unless necessary; otherwise readers might lose interest before getting through everything there is worth knowing about your website’s topic(s).

This isn’t just because humans tend not to want to read entire paragraphs all at once (even though this may be true), but also because some search engines don’t have sophisticated algorithms yet which can recognize longer text blocks as potential sources of valuable information!

If such algorithms did exist already then everyone would always just copy-paste entire articles instead 😉

Make Sure Your WordPress Site Is Fast and Responsive

If your site takes longer to load than it should, Google may decide that your site is slow and therefore not worth its time. A fast website will be able to provide the best user experience for visitors, making them more likely to stay on your page and interact with your content.

To make sure your WordPress website loads quickly, follow these steps:

Use a fast hosting provider. Make sure you are using a reliable host with solid uptime and speed metrics so that Google knows how reliable they are in hosting their users’ websites. If you’re looking for a new host, check out our guide on choosing a web host, or keep reading this article!

Use caching plugins such as W3 Total Cache or WP Super Cache if you aren’t using one already;

They help speed up the loading of pages by storing templates (the layout) in memory instead of loading each time someone visits the site and all major plugins offer this functionality now anyway so there’s no excuse not to use one!

Install Amazon Cloudfront CDNs (Content Delivery Networks). These work by caching static assets like images closer geographically/

So they can be accessed faster from across different locations around the world thanks again reducing latency times which directly translates into faster page loads overall too.

As long as there aren’t any other bottlenecks preventing visitors from getting through quickly enough initially before anything else happens though usually these kinds of issues aren’t related specifically just because everything else has been optimized beforehand elsewhere.

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Manage Your Comments

Use a WordPress plugin to manage comments.

To get the most out of your commenting system, you must manage your comments well. The best way to do this is by using a WordPress plugin that helps you moderate and deals with spam, like Akismet or All in One SEO Pack.

These plugins will also help make sure that people can leave meaningful feedback on your site without needing too much effort.

Make sure they’re moderated by default; otherwise, allow readers to comment freely (but always keep an eye on them).

If you want more control over what people are saying about your brand or website content, then consider requiring users to sign up for accounts before leaving comments this gives them less anonymity and makes it easier for you as the owner of the site to remove anything inappropriate later on if necessary.[4]

Optimize Your Images For SEO

If you’re not doing this already, it’s time to start: make sure your images have alt text. For search engines like Google to display something relevant when they find an image on your website, they need to know what that image is about.

Alt text (alternative text) tells them just that. It’s also helpful for people with disabilities who rely on screen readers or other technologies that can read the alt text out loud so they know what their screen is showing them.

So how do we go about adding alt text? Fortunately, WordPress makes this easy by allowing us to add ALT attributes into the HTML code of our post images while uploading them directly onto our site through the media library feature in WordPress’ dashboard interface (look under “Add New”).

Alternatively, there are several plugins out there including Yoast SEO which will automatically populate your alt tags for all images uploaded via their plugin settings page once activated though remember not all users will have these plugins installed so it’s still a good practice if possible!

Add Schema Markup To Your WordPress Site

You can help search engines understand your content better by adding Schema Markup to your WordPress site. Schema Markup is a way of marking up your content to tell search engines what it’s about, and how it fits into the larger scope of the web.

For example, say you have a blog post about how to create an infographic in Photoshop. You could add this code:

How To Create An Infographic In Photoshop

The above code will show up as bold text that says “by” and links out to the URL of whoever wrote that post (you!). It’ll also show up as blue underlined text if someone searches for “create an infographic in photoshop” because Google knows that those words are related to each other.

This helps Google better understand what type of information you’re trying to share with readers, and in turn, helps them serve up more relevant search engine results when users type queries related to these topics into their search engines like Google or Bing!

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Add Your Site To Google Search Console

The best way to keep tabs on your site’s performance in Google Search results is to add it to Google Search Console. It’s a free tool that helps you monitor your site’s index status, verify ownership, get suggestions on how to improve your search presence, and more.

Add A Blog To A Business Website To Attract Traffic And Links (SEO)

A blog is a great way to attract traffic and links. A good blog post should be focused on a single topic and should be helpful, not promotional.

Posts that are written in a conversational style are more likely to attract readers and links than posts that sound like advertisements or press releases.

Blogs should also be updated at least once every week, if not more often – it’s important that you don’t let your blog fall out of date!

Create Cornerstone Content Pages For SEO

Cornerstone content pages are the foundation of your site. These are the pages that you want to be the most visible, most linked to, and most active on social media. You should create cornerstone content pages for every niche category you have on your site.

You can use these pages as a way to attract links from other sites as well as get more traffic from search engines like Google.

Cornerstone content pages have certain qualities:

They’re full of original, quality content (not just one blog post).
They’re created with a specific goal in mind such as attracting links or getting traffic from search engines and they focus on driving conversions (lead generation).

Use 301 Redirects On Any Broken Links

301 redirects are a great tool for keeping your site running smoothly, especially if you’re going to be doing SEO work on your WordPress site. In this section, we’ll teach you what they are, why they matter, and how to set up 301 redirects in WordPress.

What is a 301 Redirect?

You may have heard the terms “301redirectst” or “302 redirect” floating around, but what do they mean? A 301 redirect is an HTTP status code that tells search engines that when someone goes to one page, it should be redirected (or moved) to another page.

This can happen for several reasons: The content has been moved from one place on your site to another; the page is no longer available (the URL might have changed), or there was an error loading the content at all.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are a lot of ways to make your WordPress site more SEO-friendly. We talked about several in this article, but remember that some of the most important ones have to do with the content on your site.

If you haven’t already reviewed what we covered here and updated your existing posts accordingly, now is a good time to do so!

FAQs

Have questions about optimizing your WordPress site for search engines? Here are some common queries and their answers:

How can I improve my WordPress site’s SEO?

Enhancing your WordPress site’s SEO involves several steps. Start by creating high-quality content, optimizing your website’s structure, using relevant keywords, and building quality backlinks.

What are some on-page SEO techniques for WordPress?

On-page SEO techniques for WordPress include optimizing meta titles and descriptions, using header tags effectively, adding alt text to images, and ensuring your content provides value to users.

Is mobile responsiveness important for WordPress SEO?

Yes, mobile responsiveness is crucial for SEO. Google considers mobile-friendliness when ranking websites. Ensure your WordPress site is responsive and provides a seamless experience across devices.

How can I speed up my WordPress site for better SEO?

To improve site speed, consider using a reliable hosting provider, optimizing images, using caching plugins, and minimizing the use of heavy scripts or plugins that can slow down your website.

Should I use SEO plugins for my WordPress site?

Yes, SEO plugins can be highly beneficial. Plugins like Yoast SEO or All in One SEO Pack can help you optimize your content, meta tags, and other crucial elements to improve your site’s search engine visibility.

Costantine Edward

Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.