07 Aug 5 Essentials for WordPress SEO

Do you know how to set your WordPress Website up with “good” SEO? Do you know what SEO is? Want to know how to get your website to be on the front page of Google for your business’s search terms? This blog post will help answer these questions with tips and tricks we’ve learned while climbing the search engine ladder!

Why Should I Care About 5 Essentials for WordPress SEO?

These 5 essentials for WordPress SEO tips helped put our website on the front page of Google for our business category! Of course, this is not a comprehensive list of SEO best practices. It is really a starting point to helping get your WordPress website in great SEO shape.

1. Learn the Meaning and Importance of SEO For your WordPress Websites

SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization”. In very simple terms, it is all about working to get your website to show up as high as possible in organic (non-paid) search results for search engines like Google. Or in other words, it’s all about getting people to see your business when they Google it! Again, this is a very watered down explanation of what SEO is (click here to learn more details about the basics of SEO from Moz). If you’re still wondering if you should use WordPress for your business website, click here to find out why WordPress is a great fit for your business and a great platform to get SEO optimized.

2. What is the Easiest and Best Way to Rank Number One For SEO With Google

Okay, we are going to start this section off by saying what you don’t want to hear… There isn’t a quick, one-step way to become number one in those Google rankings. If that is what you need, pay for Google ads.We feel that this principle is important enough to be classified as one of the 5 essentials for WordPress SEO. But! There’re ways and settings for your WordPress website that, when done correctly, will improve your SEO for organic search results. Read on for more of the “how to’s” we suggest implementing for your site.

3. Great Content Means Great SEO

That’s right. The better quality and more unique your content (but not too unique that no one searches for it!) the better your SEO. Google loves lots of text and great images with applicable alt tags. Also, make sure to post your content often! Even once a week will help keep your organic ranking high. Writing great content gets a lot easier with the right tools. The free software called Yoast does an amazing job of helping writers know exactly what and how to write for the best SEO results.

4. Yoast WordPress Plugin

We can’t say enough about Yoast. It’s a simple and effective way to improve your SEO. And it’s free! We use it for evaluating the readability of our blog posts and for optimizing links, titles, images, etc for individual pages. There is also a simple way to link Google Console to your WordPress site with Yoast’s settings. This will allow you to submit a sitemap to Google. This sitemap helps tell Google your site is up and ready for business!

5. Quality Hosting

Don’t skimp on your server quality! Make sure you are set up with great hosting. We highly recommend WP Engine managed hosting if you are serious about your business website (click here for a 20% discount at checkout for WP Engine hosting). Their servers are secure, fast and trusted by top companies (click here to view more great features about WP Engine). Also, Google has recently started penalizing websites that are not “secure”. A secure website will have that little green lock in the address bar. The great news is that WP Engine provides SSL certificates for all of your installs for free! Click here if you want another reference regarding the importance of SSL certificates and Google’s new ranking algorithm.

Now What

Get started! Nothing happens until you make the first step. Don’t get overwhelmed by the idea of blogging everyday or having to know all the technical details. Get going and learn as you go. And don’t forget to enjoy the journey and help others on the way. Reach out to friends, partners and other businesses for help. Share their posts. Tell them what you’re learning. There is enough room in the SEO world for everyone. That’s it. I hope this helps and that you’ve enjoyed this post on the 5 essentials for WordPress SEO!