WordPress SEO: 7 Practical Steps
WordPress is currently one of the most popular CMS (Content Management Systems) worldwide, despite the presence of more successful alternatives.
However, simply having a CMS won’t make your website rank first on Google. You need to adhere to the best SEO practices to attract a substantial amount of visitors and turn your website into a true traffic giant.
Below are steps that will help you achieve successful WordPress SEO. These steps pertain to self-hosted WordPress sites (wordpress. org), not the hosted page builder (wordpress. com).
1️⃣ Choose a Quality Hosting Provider:
▪️ Long uptime: Frequent downtime harms your reputation and business.
▪️ Free SSL: Provides secure HTTPS encryption for your site.
▪️ Server location: If targeting U.S. customers, your server should be located in the U.S.
2️⃣ Use Only SEO-Friendly WordPress Themes:
Website speed is crucial for SEO.
3️⃣ Plan Your Website Architecture:
Good site architecture aids search engines in scanning your site. Aim for no more than three clicks to reach any page from the homepage.
4️⃣ Create an Easy-to-Navigate Menu:
Menu content matters for both user convenience and SEO. It helps your visitors find the priority pages.
5️⃣ Utilise SEO-Friendly URLs:
Descriptive permalinks help search engines and users understand your pages.
6️⃣ Submit Your Sitemap to Google Search Console:
An XML sitemap lists all your pages in a format easily read by search engines. Help search engines discover your new pages and provide important information like the last update time.
7️⃣ Noindex:
WordPress generates various taxonomy and archive pages.
Archival pages for specific months, like June 2023, have their own URLs (e.g. https:// yourwebsite. com/ 2023/ 06/). These can negatively impact your SEO when indexed.
These are the essential points to know when starting a WordPress site.
In upcoming posts, I’ll turn over more about WordPress SEO in the following stages.