Do you know what one common goal of all website owners is? Well, they all want to make WordPress sites Google-friendly.
You will want as many eyes as possible on your website — whether your goal is to entertain or inform readers, sell your products and services or even provide the world’s best web hosting.
SEO not only helps your pages rank higher in search engines results, but it also increases your site’s visibility and can help it take off.
The best part is that there are simple methods you can use to improve your WordPress site’s SEO, even if you are a total beginner. Read on to know the 11 best techniques to make WordPress site Google friendly.
A good host can push you to the top of the SERPs. Besides, it also affects the amount of downtime your site experiences and the physical distance between servers and visitors. Both are critical factors in ranking your site.
If you haven’t created your website yet, choose a reliable host with enough customer testimonials. At the same time, if you have an existing site, you can still consider switching hosts if your current provider does not fulfill these criteria.
Small or medium-sized website owners often believe that their website is safe and can run on HTTP protocol. But, if you wish to make a WordPress site Google friendly, you will need to prevent it from hacking attempts. Unfortunately, hackers are getting smarter day by day and are on the lookout for unencrypted PII that they can exploit for their financial gains.
So, if you are still wondering how to safeguard your site, all you need to do is invest in the right kind of SSL. But, what exactly is SSL?
HTTPS = HTTP + SSL.
A Secure Socket Layer or SSL certificate is a digital protocol that secures the in-transit data between the web browser and the client-server. This keeps all MITM attacks at bay and makes your site Google-friendly.
You must invest in an SSL certificate if you haven’t already. Not only will it encrypt confidential data, but it will also enhance customer trust. The best part is that SSL certificates won’t burn a hole in your pocket as several affordable options are available in the market. If you own a web-shop with multiple first-level subdomains under the main domain and intend to add more such subdomains, then investing in a wildcard SSL certificate makes sense. This single certificate will help you secure multiple level-one subdomains under the chosen main domain at no extra cost! Consider buying a cheap wildcard SSL certificate that affords the same premium encryption as its more expensive counterparts.
Your theme is one of the most critical choices you’ll be making for your WordPress site.
For example, your theme will affect your site’s speed. Also, the way a theme was developed matters.
Thus, pick a theme with in-built SEO modules. You may also want to consider a theme that offers heading tag options.
Some plugins can help your site rank higher in search engines and even improve your site’s SEO.
These plugins can even help you create a sitemap and make your site search engine’s favorite. You can also opt for a comprehensive and effective SEO plugin such as Yoast SEO for extraordinary results. They will add a whole suite of optimization-focused features to your site and make it shine!
Permalinks are the permanent URLs that redirect to your site’s pages, individual posts, and other content. They’re what people use to reference and link back to your site. You need to remember that appearance plays a major role here. Clear, descriptive links that describe your content will make it easier for search engines to rank your page.
A sitemap lists out all the pages and content on your website. This is usually organized into a hierarchy and helps you analyze how your site is laid out and what all it includes. While these were once designed to help users navigate websites, they are now used to relay information to search engine bots.
While adding a sitemap to your site doesn’t boost its search engine rankings, it’s still a great SEO tool.
While a sitemap comes in handy for search engine crawlers to see how your site is organized, it doesn’t help with individual content. For the same, you’ll need to use heading tags. Not only do they make your page look aesthetically pleasing, but they can make your content rank higher too.
Using these headings to structure your content will help you accomplish two things. First, it will make your text easier to read. So when creating posts and pages, use heading options often and consistently.
Chances are you’ve come across the whole idea of keywords before. These are short phrases that describe the topic you are writing on and help you rank your content on search engines. For example, you might select the keyword “easy recipes” for a blog post detailing simple recipe options for beginners. By doing this, you have considered that many people will type the phrase into a search engine when looking for such posts.
Choosing a keyword for each post and using it in various places such as the title, the headings, and the content will drastically increase the chances of showing your content in relevant searches.
But a thing to remember here is that you don’t force your keywords. Keep it natural and let it flow with the content.
Google and other search engines will not consider your website in a vacuum. Instead, they analyze how well it is connected internally and to other sites. Besides, it also encourages other people to link back to your site. This, in turn, communicates to search engines that your content
valuable!
Incorporate links that fit naturally and redirect readers towards high-quality websites that already hold a good position in SERPs. Innovative internal and external links are the secret sauce to achieving the best SEO results possible.
More people are using mobile devices to browse the internet. This implies that your site needs to look and perform well irrespective of the device a visitor happens to be using. One way to achieve this is by using responsive design. This means designing your site to adapt to each user’s device.
If your site is responsive, there are chances that it will appear high on SERPs. The best way to get started for WordPress users is to choose a theme that supports it. Also, don’t forget to check out themes that support other SEO features!
Images are essential for all websites. They provide visual appeal and context and also have a significant impact on your SEO. The quality and size of your images can impact your pages’ loading speed. Also, crawlers will analyze certain information attached to images. These include filenames and ‘alt text’ — when trying to index and understand your site.
These were tips you can use to make WordPress site Google-friendly. Luckily, you don’t need to become an SEO expert to rank your site higher in SERPs. By implementing these strategies, you will be able to improve your site’s visibility and traffic to a great extent. Still, have questions regarding your WordPress website’s SEO? Shoot them in the comments below!